History of military pension legislation in the United States

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.

Accession

8658 Class.,..

HISTORY

OF

MILITARY

LEGISLATION

IN THE

UNITED STATES

BY

WILLIAM HENRY GLASSON, Pli.B.,

Sometime University Fellow in Administration

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

IN THE

FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

IRew

1900

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

PAGE

The importance of the pension question 9

Plan of treatment 10

Definitions 10

CHAPTER I

PENSION LEGISLATION PRIOR TO 1789

Colonial pension laws 12

First national pension law 14

Washington's views with regard to pensions 15

First provision for widows and orphans 16

Half pay for life promised to Revolutionary officers 17

Opposition to half pay in the States 18

Discontent in the army 18

Commutation of the half pay 19

Violent agitation against commutation 20

Settlement of the half pay claims 21

Further invalid pension legislation 22

Purpose of pension legislation prior to 1789 23

CHAPTER II

REVOLUTIONARY PENSION LEGISLATION, 1789-1878

Centralization of pension administration 25

Pressure of applicants for pensions 26

Invalid pension law of March 23, 1 792 26

Circuit Courts of United States to examine applicants 27

Conflict between United States judges and Congress 27

Act of February 28, 1 793 29

Important invalid pension act of April 10, 1806 31

Increase act of April 24, 1816 33

Limited service pension act of March 18, 1818 33

8658

Vi TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

Arguments of the opposition to this law 34

Abuses of the act of 1818 37

Remedial legislation of May I, 1820 38

Operation of the acts of 1818 and 1820 39

Act of 1828, granting full pay for life 40

Hayne's speech on the pension system 41

Pension expenditures and a protective tariff 42

Alleged discrimination against the South 43

Service pension act of June 7, 1832 44

Frauds under the act of 1832 45

Distribution of pension expenditures up to 1834 48

Act of July 4, 1836, providing for widows 49

Final provisions for Revolutionary widows 49

Results of Revolutionary pension legislation 51

CHAPTER III

LEGISLATION BASED ON SERVICE BETWEEN 1789 AND 1861

1. Provisions for the Regular Army and Volunteers

2. Navy and Privateer Pension Funds

Establishment of the navy pension fund 55

History and statistics of the fund 56

Renewal of the fund during the Civil War 57

Present condition of the navy pension fund 59

Establishment and history of the privateer pension fund 60

3. War of 1812 Pensions

Service pension act of February 14, 1871 6l

More liberal act of March 9, 1878 62

Results of War of 1812 pension acts 64

4. Indian War Pensions

Service pension act of July 27, 1892 64

5. Mexican War Pensions

Limited service pension act of January 29, 1887 66

Results of the Mexican War pension acts 68

CHAPTER IV

CIVIL WAR PENSION LEGISLATION, 1861-1879

Pension system at the beginning of the war 70

Policy toward disloyal pensioners 71

Urgent need of additional legislation 72

Fundamental invalid pension act of July 14, 1862 73

Special rating by law for specific disabilities 76

Increase acts of 1866 , . , ,..,..., „ . . , ,..,,.,., , 78

225] TABLE OF CONTENTS vjj

PAGE

Act of July 27, 1868 80

The average pension in 1871 84

Codification of the pension laws 85

Decrease in pension expenditures 86

CHAPTER V

CIVIL WAR PENSION LEGISLATION, ARREARS ACT TO 1890

Early provisions regarding arrears 88

Increased activity of pension attorneys = 90

The Arrears Act in Congress 91

Agitation and petitions for its passage 94

Its provisions 95

Stimulus afforded to fraudulent claims 96

Recognition of enormous cost of the act 98

Amendment and limitation of March 3, 1879 99

Extraordinary number of claims presented loo

Operation of the Arrears Act 102

Increase act of March 19, 1886 105

Partial repeal of limitation on arrears 105

Harmful operation of proviso of June 7, 1888 106

CHAPTER VI

CIVIL WAR PENSION LEGISLATION, DEPENDENT PENSION ACT TO 1899

President Cleveland's message of 1886 108

His veto of the Dependent Pension Bill 109

Continued agitation for service pensions 112

Passage of the act of June 27, 1890 1 14

Provisions of that law 114

Statistics of its operation 115

The act of 1890 a bad law 117

Tabular statements of its cost and of claims filed 118

Pensions granted to army nurses 119

A pension not a vested legal right 119

Minimum invalid rate of six dollars per month 119

Arrears under the act of June 27, 1890 120

Act of March 3, 1899 120

Existing laws apply to the War with Spain 121

Special Pension Legislation

Number of special acts passed 122

Methods of passage 122

President Cleveland's vetoes 123

Possible improvement in methods * , . . . . 123

viii TABLE OF CONTENTS [226

CHAPTER VII
CONCLUSION: A CRITICISM OF PENSION LEGISLATION

FACE

1. The Trend of Pension Legislation

Sketch of the development of our pension system 1 25

2. Our Present System of Laws

Its twofold character 126

3. Causes and Evils of Unwise Legislation

Surplus in the Treasury 127

Activity of attorneys and claim agents 128

Organization and political activity of veterans 128

Evil results of improper laws 129

4. A Proper System of Laws

Service pension laws not desirable 130

An invalid pension system accords with good public policy 131

Pensions for widows and dependent relatives 131

Reforms in administration needed 132

APPENDIX
BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

THE maintenance of the military pension system of the
United States has cost since the close of the Civil War
about two and a [half billions of dollars. At the present
time, nearly one million names are borne upon the national
pension rolls, or, approximately, one in seventy-five of the
population of the country. The annual expenditure for
pensions is, roughly speaking, one hundred and forty mil-
lion dollars, an amount about equal to our total annual
receipts from internal revenue under conditions such as pre-
vailed from 1894 to 1897. These statements suffice to indi-
cate the importance of what is commonly known as the
" pension question," and to make it clear that the subject of
pension legislation and administration is worthy of careful
study. The field is now an open one in which scarcely any
serious work has been done.

This monograph aims to occupy part of the open field by
giving a systematic account of national military pension leg-
islation in the United States from 1776 to the present time.
The main features of the most important laws are given, to-
gether with the circumstances attending their passage and
the results of their operation. While any adequate treat-
ment of the administration of the pension laws under pres-
ent complex conditions would require an independent mono-
graph, legislation and administration are so intimately
connected that the latter necessarily receives considerable
attention.

After a review of pension legislation prior to the inaugu-
227] 9

I o MILITAR Y PENSION LE GISLA TION [2 2 8

ration of the Federal Government in 1789, the writer's plan
contemplates a topical treatment of laws. The enactments
connected with each important war are grouped together,
and an attempt is made to show the development of legisla-
tion and the introduction of new principles. Statistical in-
formation with regard to the admission of claims and ex-
penditures under the various laws is compiled from the
Government reports. It may be added that this essay does
\ not include a consideration of retirement pensions, civil pen-
sions or of State pension laws. An investigation of the lat-
ter topic would be of interest as showing the provision made
by some of the Southern States for the ex-soldiers of the
Confederate army.

A military pension may be defined as a regular allowance
made by a government to one who has been in its military
service, or to his widow or dependent relatives. Since a
state has an absolute right to require the services of its citi-
zens in time of war, the payment of a pension is commonly
4 regarded not as the discharge of a debt due the ex-soldier,
but as a gratuity. Pensions for soldiers may be divided into
\ invalid or disability pensions and service pensions. An in-
valid or disability pension is one granted to a soldier on ac-
count of wounds or injuries received or disease contracted in
the military service. A service pension is granted to one
who has been in the military service for a specified length of
time, without regard to the question whether or not he has
incurred injury or disability in that service.

Service pensions maybe divided \\\\.Q pure service pensions
and limited service pensions. The former are granted for a
specified length of military service without regard to any
other consideration. Limited service pension laws require a
specified length of service and also some other qualification
or qualifications, such as indigence, inability to perform
manual labor, inability to earn a support, disability in some

229] INTRODUCTION H

degree incurred since the termination of the war, or the
attainment of a certain age.

Pensions to widows are sometimes conditioned on the date
of marriage, whether before, during or after the soldier's ser-
vice, or before or after a specified date. Widows generally
forfeit their pensions by a re-marriage. Another matter fre-
quently considered in the pensioning of widows and depend-
ent relatives is the cause of the soldier's death, whether in
battle, in service, or, after discharge, as the result of injuries
received or disease contracted in service. The more liberal
laws grant pensions to widows and dependent relatives on
mere proof of death, without regard to the cause.

Before passing to the consideration of legislation, the
writer wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to Professor
J. W. Jenks, of Cornell University, at whose suggestion he
undertook this study, and to Professors H. R. Seager, of the
University of Pennsylvania, and F. J. Goodnow, of Columbia
University, for encouragement and advice during the progress
of the work. The Pension Bureau has also kindly responded
to requests for its official publications.

The pension laws abound with technicalities which can be
of but little interest to the general reader. In so far as pos-
sible, an effort has been made to eliminate these confusing
details where they are not necessary to the purpose of the
essay, which is the presentation in a broad, systematic and
intelligible way of the development in legisjation of our
present pension system.

CHAPTER I

PENSION LEGISLATION PRIOR TO 1789

THE inauguration of a military pension system by the
government of the United States followed closely upon the
Declaration of Independence, the first national pension law
bearing date of August 26, 1/76. Such a system was in
full accord with over a century of colonial legislation and
practice. Early in their history, many of the English colo-
nies in America had provided for the relief and maintenance
of wounded and maimed soldiers. By way of introduction
^to national pension legislation, some notice of early colonial
laws is instructive.

In 1636 the Pilgrims at Plymouth enacted in their Court
\ that any man who should be sent forth as a soldier and re-
turn maimed should be maintained competently by the col-
ony during his life.1 This was probably the first pension
law passed in America. In 1676 and the years immediately
thereafter, a standing committee of the General Court of
Massachusetts Bay held regular meetings in " Boston toune
house " to hear the applications of wounded soldiers for re-
lief.2 After the union of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth
under the charter of 1691, the province continued to make
provisions for the relief of disabled soldiers out of the pub-
lic treasury.3

As early as 1644, the Virginia Assembly passed a disabil-

1 Plymouth Colony Records, xi, Laws, 106.

2 Records oj Colony of Massachusetts Bay, v, 80, 227.
8 Acts and Resolves of Province of Mass. Bay, \, 135.

12 [230

231] PRIOR TO 1789 13

ity pension law, and later provided for the relief of the indi- ^X
gent families of the colony's soldiers who should be slain.1
We find similar acts among the colonial statutes of Mary-
land2 and New York3 during the latter part of the seven-
teenth century. The Maryland militia law of November,
1678, promised yearly pensions not only to soldiers who
should be disabled, but also to the widows and orphan chil-
daen of those who should lose their lives in the military ser-
vice. "Competent" pensions were to be yearly rated and
allowed out of the public levy by the General Assembly.
Petitioners for pensions were required to show by certificates
from the commissioners of the respective county courts that
they were proper objects of charity.

In 1718 Rhode Island enacted a remarkably comprehen- ^
sive pension law.4 It provided that every officer, soldier or
sailor, employed in the colony's service, who should be dis-
abled by loss of limb or otherwise from getting a livelihood
for himself and family or other dependent relatives, should
have his wounds carefully looked after and healed at the
colony's charge, and should have an annual pension allowed
him out of the general treasury, sufficient for the mainte-
nance of himself and family, or other dependent relatives.
The law further provided that if any person, who had the
charge of maintaining a wife, children, parents or other rela-
tives, should be slain in the colony's military service, these
relatives should be maintained, while unable to provide for
themselves, by such yearly pension from the treasury of the
colony as the General Assembly might deem sufficient.
The town councils were charged with the care and oversight
of those persons entitled to pensions who resided in their

1 Hening's Statutes at Large, i, 287; ii, 331, 347, 440.

1 Archives of Md.t Proceedings of Assembly, 1637-8-1664, 408, 436, and also,
Ibid., 1678-1683, 58.

1 Colonial Laws of N. F., i, 234. * Acts and Laws of R. /., 74.

I4 MILITARY PENSION LEGISLA TION [232

respective towns. Each council was, from time to time, to
receive the pensions, and therewith to supply the benefi-
ciaries as they should stand in need.

This notice of early colonial laws makes it clear that pen-
sion provisions for disabled soldiers are of almost as long
standing in this country as English settlement. The simple
provision made by the Pilgrims in 1636 is as truly a disabil-
ity pension act as the more elaborate laws of later times.
Aiming to secure enlistments in military expeditions against
the Indians, the colonies promised to care for those who
should be disabled and be left without means of obtaining a
livelihood, and also to aid the indigent families of those who
should fall in the conflict. So pension provisions came to
be commonly included in acts organizing the militia or
levying soldiers for some particular military enterprise.
Rates were not specifically fixed in these laws, that matter
and other details being dealt with in the process of adminis-
tration. It is scarcely possible to ascertain the amount of
relief afforded, though sundry entries of pension payments
in colonial records show that the legislation must have had
considerable effect.

With regard to pensions, as in other respects, it was natu-
ral that colonial experience and precedent should have a
marked influence on the action of the colonies at the out-
break of the Revolutionary troubles, and that their new na-
tional government should inaugurate a military pension sys-
tem. Nor during the Revolution did the States rely entirely
on Congress to take the initiative in granting pensions.
Some of them, notably Virginia and Pennsylvania, inde-
pendently promised liberal allowances to their disabled sol-
diers.

The first national pension law, that of August 26, 1776,

1 Hening's Statutes at Large, ix, 14, 91, 456, 566; x, 25. Also Laws of Penna.,
i, 488-489.

233] PRIOR TO 1789 !5

promised half pay for life or during disability to every offi-
cer, soldier or sailor losing a limb in any engagement, or be-
ing so disabled in the service of the United States as to ren-
der him incapable of earning a livelihood.1 Proportionate
relief was promised to such as were only partially disabled
from getting a livelihood. It was recommended to the
States to appoint proper officers for the execution of the
law, and the several legislatures were requested to cause the
payment on account of the United States of such half pay
and other allowances as should be adjudged due to the sol-
diers from their respective States.

This early national law agreed in principle with the colo-
nial disability provisions which we have already considered.
It aimed to encourage enlistment in the Revolutionary Y
army.2 The Continental Congress was without money or
real executive power, and was hence obliged to entrust the
execution of the act to the States. Consequently, it was
just as effective as they chose to make it.

Washington was a strong advocate of a " half pay and pen-
sionary establishment." On January 28, 1778, during the
hard winter at Valley Forge, he sent to Congress a gloomy
account of the condition of his command.3 He said that,
on the part of the officers, there were frequent resignations,
and more frequent importunities for permission to resign,
and, in the ranks, " apathy, inattention and neglect of duty."
To reanimate the languishing zeal of the officers, he urged
upon Congress a provision for half pay and pensions. "This
would not only dispel the apprehension of personal distress,
(at) the termination of the war, from having thrown them-

1 Journals of Congress, i, 454-455. See also, in this connection, Resolution of
September 25, 1778, Journals of Congress, iii, 68, 69.

3 An important bounty land resolution of September 16, 1776, was also passed
with this end in view.

8 Writings of Washington, vi, 301-304.

!6 MILITARY PENSION LEGISLATION

selves (out) of professions and employments they might not
have it in their power to resume; but would in a great de-
gree relieve the painful anticipation of leaving their widows
and orphans, a burthen on the charity of their country,
should it be their lot to fall in its defence."

As a result of Washington's appeal, after several weeks of
deliberation, Congress, on May 15, 1778, unanimously voted
to all commissioned officers, who should continue in the ser-
vice of the United States to the end of the war, half pay for
seven years after its conclusion.1 This resolution did not
apply to foreign officers, and the half pay was not to exceed
that of a colonel. At the same time, Congress promised to
soldiers who should serve to the end of the war a gratuity
of eighty dollars. On August 24, 1780, a resolution was
adopted extending the above half pay provision to the
widows, or orphan children, of such officers as had died, or
should die in the service.2 This was the first national pen-
sion law in behalf of widows and orphans. Congress recom-
mended to the several State legislatures to make the neces-
sary payments on account of the United States.s

Notwithstanding the efforts to encourage service in the
army, distress and discontent continued. The Continental
Congress had neither cash nor credit. It could make prom-
ises without end, but pay only in its own depreciated and
worthless bills. The States had little regard for its requisi-
tions and recommendations. Complaints from the army
multiplied. No officer could live upon his pay, and hun-

1 Journals of Congress, ii, 554-555. A vote favorable to a grant of half pay for
life to those officers was taken on April 26, 1778, but the measure was not at that
time finally adopted. Ibid.% ii, 528.

3 Journals of Congress, iii, 512-513.

8 After the adoption of the Federal Constitution, resolutions of Congress of No-
vember 2, 1785, and July 23, 1787, were construed as barring further claims under
the resolution of August 24, 1780. Section I of the Act of March 23, 1792, sus-
pended the barring resolutions for two years. U. S. Statutes at Large, i, 243.

235] PRIOR TO 1789 ij

dreds, unable longer to support themselves, resigned their
commissions. Others were unfit for duty for want of cloth-
ing. In this dire emergency, Congress was helpless.1

Moved by these troubles, Washington wrote to the Presi-
dent of Congress, on October II, 1780, urgently advocating
what he had long desired, a promise of half pay for life to
those officers who should serve to the end of the war.3
" Supported by a prospect of a permanent independence,"
said he, " the officers would be tied to the Service, and
would submit to many momentary privations, and to the in-
conveniences, which the situation of public affairs makes un-
avoidable. This is exemplified in the Pennsylvania officers,
who, being upon this establishment,3 are so much interested
in the Service, that, in the course of five months, there has
been only one resignation in that line." On October 21,
1780, Congress, after consideration of the report of the com-
mittee on General Washington's letter, resolved that all offi-
cers, who should continue in service to the end of the war,
should be entitled to half pay during life, to commence from
the time of their reduction.4 This action was vigorously op-
posed in Congress, and caused considerable agitation in
some of the States.

During the progress of the war, Congress made further pro-
vision for invalids by the resolution of April 23, 1782.5 This
allowed soldiers, who were sick or wounded, and were reported
unfit for duty either in the field or in garrison, to receive a
discharge, and to be pensioned at the rate of five dollars
per month. The States were requested to discharge such
pensions annually, and to draw upon the Superintendent of
Finance for the money advanced.

1 Writings of Washington, viii, 379-380. 2 Ibid., viii, 483-484.

» Pennsylvania by Act of March I, 1780, increased the half pay for seven years,
granted by Congress to commissioned officers who should serve to the end of the
war, to half pay for life. Laws of Penna., i, 488-489.

4 Journals of Congress, iii, 538-539. 5 Ibid., iv, 18-19.

/

1 8 MI LI TAR Y PENSION LE GISLA TION [236

As the end of the war approached, the feeling against the
half pay for life to Revolutionary officers grew in some sec-
tions of the country into a fierce clamor of opposition. The
officers began to fear that they would never get their due.
In December, 1782, those of Washington's command set
forth their grievances in a memorial to Congress.1 They
complained that no effectual provision had been made for
the half pay, and that those entitled to it had become the
objects of obloquy. The grant seemed to them an honor-
able and just recompense for years of hard service in which
they had suffered in health and fortune. If the objection were
against the mode of reward only, they offered in the interest
of harmony to commute the half pay pledged for full pay
during a term of years, or for a sum in gross. Congress was
also petitioned to make proper provision for the disabled
officers and soldiers, and for the widows and orphans of
those who had lost their lives in the service of their country.

The officers had good reason for their fears, for in Con-
gress there was determined opposition on the part of the
New England States to any provision whatever regarding the
half pay. Various propositions for commutation were voted
down,2 the delegates from Connecticut and Rhode Island3
being especially instructed against that manner of settlement.
The validity of the original promise of Congress was called
in question, but stoutly defended by Madison and by Wil-
son, of Pennsylvania. The latter criticised instructions
which 4< militated against the most peremptory and lawful
engagements of Congress," and said that " if such a doc-
trine prevailed the authority of the Confederacy was at an
end." ^

Meanwhile, the discontent in the army was reaching acute

1 Journals of Congress, iv, 207. * Ibid., iv, 152.

8 Records of Colony of R. /., 1780-1783, ix, 610.

4 Gilpin, Madison Papers, i, 275-277, 280, 320-321, 358.

237] PRIOR TO 1789 !<2

stages. About March 10, 1783, appeared the famous
" Newburgh addresses," urging the officers of the army not
to separate until Congress had done justice to their claims.
Washington transmitted copies of these addresses to Con-
gress, accompanied by official letters detailing the occur-
rences at the Newburgh encampment. In his letter of
March 18, he urged Congress to take measures to carry the
half pay provision into effect.1 He pointed out that, at a
critical and perilous moment, the promise of half pay for
life had been attended with the happiest consequences, and
had perhaps prevented the dissolution of the army. The
establishment of security for the payment of all the just de-
mands of the army, he thought would be the most certain
means of preserving the national faith and the future tran-
quillity of the continent.

Congress was at length compelled by the critical state of
affairs to act. On March 22, 1783, the necessary nine States
voted in favor of commutation of the half pay for life to five
years' full pay, in money, or in securities bearing interest at
six per cent, per annum, as Congress should find most con-
venient.2 The officers in the lines of the respective States
were given an option, when acting in each State collectively,
as to the acceptance or refusal of the securities offered.
This resolution, known as the Commutation Act, gave great
satisfaction in the army, as is shown by letters of Washing-
ton, dated March 30 and 31, 1783.3

1 Writings of Washington, x, 180-181. Also see Journals of Congress, iv,
208-215.

* Journals of Congress, iv, 178-179. In the Address to the States, issued by
Congress on April 24, 1783, the commutation of half pay was estimated at
$5,000,000, involving an annual interest charge of $300,000. This address was
occupied with the financial affairs of the nation, and, in it, Congress asked the
consent of the States to the laying of an impost duty to provide the general gov-
ernment with an independent revenue. Journals of Congress, iv, 194-215.

8 Writings of Washington, x, 199, footnote; 203, footnote. Also Madison
Papers, i, 433.

2Q MILITAR Y PENSION LE GISLA TWN [238

But far different was the feeling among the people of the
New England States. There the Commutation Act evoked
a storm of protest. The Massachusetts legislature in July,
1783, sent to Congress a remonstrance against the act.1
They thought the grant more than an adequate reward for
the services of the officers, " inconsistent with that equality
* which ought to subsist among citizens of free and republi-
can States," and " calculated to raise and exalt some citizens
in wealth and grandeur, to the injury and oppression of
others." While expressing horror at the most distant idea
of the dissolution of the union, they observed " that the ex-
traordinary grants and allowances which Congress have
thought proper to make to their civil and military officers,
have produced such effects in this commonwealth, as are of
a threatening aspect." For these reasons, the General Court
refused the consent of the State to the impost duty recom-
mended by Congress in its address, but promised to consider
the matter again at the next session.

The extreme gravity of the situation is shown by a letter
from Madison to Randolph, dated September 8, 1783. He
said : " The opposition in the New England States to the
grant of half pay, instead of subsiding, has increased to such
a degree as to produce almost a general anarchy. In what
shape it will issue is altogether uncertain. Those who are
interested in the event look forward with very poignant ap-
prehensions. Nothing but some Continental provision can
obtain for them this part of their reward."3

In November, 1783, the House of Representatives of Con-
necticut protested that neither the half pay for life, nor the
commutation, was warranted by the Articles of Confedera-
tion, or by any power ever delegated to Congress.3 Among

1 Journals of Congress, iv, 276.

a Madison Papers, i, 572.

3 Journals of Congress, iv, 347, and Boutell, Life of Roger Sherman, 329-332.

239] PRIOR TO 1789 21

the people of this State, the feeling against the Commuta-
tion Act amounted almost to frenzy. Complaints and
threats were heard everywhere at the town meetings, and
two-thirds of the towns were represented at a State conven-
tion at Middletown, called to take measures of resistance.
This gathering indulged in plenty of excited speech-making,
but accomplished nothing of importance. It became after-
wards the subject of satirical poems and lampoons. Noah
Webster, then a young man, in a series of able essays pub-
lished in the Connecticut Courant, strongly condemned the
opposition of the convention and town meetings, and sup-
ported the action of Congress.1

The agitation against commutation gradually subsided.
Samuel Adams, who, while in Congress, had vigorously
opposed the original grant of half pay for life, was among those
whose influence served powerfully to quiet the public com-
motion. He held that Congress had an undoubted right to
make the grant, and that, even though the measure should
seem to any to have been ill-judged, the States were bound in
justice and honor to comply with it.2 To the officers of the
army, who had felt themselves in danger of receiving nothing
at all, the provision was in general acceptable. By October
31, 1783, the Secretary at War reported that the commuta-
tion had been accepted by the lines of New Hampshire,
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, and
also by numerous separate commands and individuals.3 Con-
gress issued a proclamation disbanding the army from and
after November 3, 1 783.4

In settling the claims of the officers of the army, the Pay-
master General found that the number who were entitled to

1 Wells, Life of S. Adams, iii, 207-208, and McMaster, History, i, 180, footnote.

* Wells, Life of S. Adams, iii, 208-210.

* Journals of Congress, iv, 31 1, 4 Ibid., iv, 299.

2 2 MI LI TAR Y PENSION LE GISLA TION f 2 40

half pay or commutation was 2,480. Since the Confedera-
tion had no available funds, the officers received not money
but commutation certificates, payable to them or bearer and
drawing interest at six per cent. These proved wretched
security. No provision was ma.de for paying either interest
or principal. Many officers were driven by necessity to part
with their certificates for what they could obtain, and their
cash value in the market soon fell to twelve and a half cents
on the dollar.1 After the adoption of the Federal Constitution,
the act for the funding of the domestic debt provided that,
beginning with January I, 1791, the holders of commutation
certificates should receive a three per cent stock for the in-
terest in arrears, a six per cent stock for two thirds of the
principal, and a deferred stock, bearing no interest until the
expiration of ten years, — and then at six per cent — for the
other third.2 At this time a large share of the certificates
was in the hands of speculators, and officers, who had parted

^ with them for a small fraction of their face value, lost all ad-
vantage from the provision so tardily made.3

A On June 7, 1785, some time after peace had been estab-
lished and the army disbanded, the matter of invalid pensions
again received the attention of Congress.4 In the resolu-
tions adopted at this time, a uniform method of providing
for the invalid pensioners was recommended to the several
states. Commissioned officers, so disabled as to be wholly
incapable of earning a livelihood, were to be allowed a half
pay pension. For non-commissioned officers or privates, a

1 See Reports of Committees (H. of R.), 2d Sess., ipth Congress, i, no. 6.

2 Act of August 4, 1790, U. S. Statutes at Large, i, 138.

3 The settlement of these half pay claims was long a cause of dissatisfaction
among surviving Revolutionary officers. The matter was frequently agitated and
debated in Congress until the passage of the Act of May 15, 1828, an account of
which is given in the next chapter.

* Journah of Congress, iv, 534-535.

c

241] PRIOR TO 1789 23

full pension was fixed at five dollars per month. Propor-
tional rates might be allowed for partial disability. Congress
requested that each State should appoint officers to examine
the evidence of claimants, admit claims, and make the pen- '
sion payments. Amounts so expended were to be deducted
from the respective quotas of the States for the year in which
the payments were made. No officer who had accepted his
commutation for half pay was to be entered on the list of in-
valids, unless he should first have returned his commutation.
This plan also made it the duty of the State authorities to
transmit annually complete lists of the invalid pensioners of
the United States in each State to the office of the Secretary
of War, with information as to the pay, age, service and dis-
ability of each invalid.1

The Congress of the Confederation passed, on June II,
1788, its last resolutions on the subject of invalid pensions.2
One of these declared : " That no person shall be entitled to
a pension as an invalid who has not, or shall not before the
expiration of six months from this time, make application
therefor, and produce the requisite certificates and evidence
to entitle him thereto." If this limitation had been retained
in force, no Revolutionary invalid pensions could have been
allowed after December II, 1788, except by special act. In
1792, before the limitation was suspended by the Federal
Congress, there were about 1,500 invalid pensioners on the
rolls under the laws thus far considered.3

The body of pension and half pay legislation, which we
have examined, was primarily intended as an incentive to L/
enlistment and service in the military forces of the revolting

colonies. The invalid pension provisions depended for their

v

1 See Hening, xi, 102, for the Virginia law passed in pursuance of this act of
Congress.

* Journals of Congress, iv, 821. The resolution quoted is so in text.
3 American State Papers, Claims, 57.

24 MILITAR Y PENSION LEGISLA TION [242

efficacy upon State action, which was often lacking. But
Congress, after the inauguration of the Federal Government,
v allowed to invalid pensioners the payments which had been
left in arrears by the States.1 The half pay legislation aimed
at keeping the officers in service in the face of the most dis-
couraging conditions. It was virtually the promise of a re-
tirement pension at the close of the war, in lieu of pay and
other proper provisions during the progress of hostilities.
We have seen how the promise was kept. From the stand-
point of mere numbers of persons and sums of money in-
volved, the pension legislation of this period is not of great
importance. But it is of importance, both in its connection
with the history of the time, and as the source from which
our great national pension system has developed. With the
growth of that system, its ever broadening scope and in-
creasing liberality, its complicated and difficult administra-
tion, and its often wasteful extravagance, this study is occu-
pied.

1 U. S. Statutes atLargt, vi, 4.

CHAPTER II

REVOLUTIONARY PENSION LEGISLATION, 1789-1878

AMONG the many changes brought about by the inaugu-
ration of the Federal Government in 1 789 was the centraliza-
tion of pension administration. The first Congress under
the new government provided, in September, 1789, for the
continuance by the United States of the pensions which,
under Congressional authority, had been granted and paid
by the States to Revolutionary invalids.1 This continuance,
at first for one year, was several times renewed for a like
period, and finally extended indefinitely for the life of the
pensioners. In 1790, the United States also undertook the
payment of certain arrears to March 4, 1789, due to Revo-
lutionary pensioners, and unpaid through the neglect or re-
fusal of the States to act.2 The Secretary of War became
the principal executive officer concerned with the national
pension administration, but Congress for a long time reserved
to itself a direct control over the final allowance of claims.
It is noteworthy that there was not a complete transfer of
pensioners from State to national rolls. Individual States
continued to pay regular stipends to many persons who
been pensioned for various causes under State laws, but
without authority of Congress.

Scarcely had the National Government assumed the pen-
sion administration when Congress was beset with petitions
from soldiers of the Revolution for original pensions or in-
crease. Some had neglected to apply within the time limit

1 U. S. Statutes at Large, i, 95. * Ibid., vi, 4.

243] 25

26 MILITARY PENSION LEGISLATION [244

prescribed by previous legislation; others, unsuccessful in
the States, came to Congress with their claims. Special
legislation was the only means of relief, since there was no
general law in force.

These claims were frequently referred for a report and
opinion to the Secretary of War, General Knox. We find
that he was not favorably disposed toward them, especially
where they had been already rejected in the States. He
thought that claims which had failed under all the circum-
stances of local information and influence, even though the
provision was made at the expense of the United States,
could not be well founded. Knox also advised Congress to
adhere to the six months' limitation prescribed by the resolu-
tion of June n, 1788. Had his counsel shaped the policy
of the Government, the payments to Revolutionary pensioners
would never have been of much importance. In March,
1792, the number of non-commissioned officers and privates
on the general pension list was 1,358, none of whom received
a pension exceeding five dollars per month. The entire
number of invalid pensioners of all descriptions at that time
was 1,472. With no general pension law, and with special
acts passed only in exceptional cases, death would have
slowly but surely wiped out this small list.1

Quite different was the actual course of events. Respond-
ing to the pressure of applicants and to favorable expressions
of public opinion, Congress enacted the general pension law
of March 23, I792.2 As a pension law, it is of small import-
ance, for the greater part of it was soon repealed. Its great
significance is found in the fact that it furnished the first
occasion for a disagreement between Congress and the
Judiciary as to their respective powers under the Federal
Constitution.

1 See Reports of Sec'y Knox, American State Papers, Claims, 5, 18, 28, 57.
1 U. S. Statutes at Large, i, 243.

245] REVOLUTIONARY, 1789-1878 2/

The law imposed upon the Circuit Courts of the United
States the duty of examining, in person, applicants for pen-
sions, receiving prescribed proofs of service and disability,
and determining the nature and degree of the disability. If
an applicant was found entitled to be placed on the pension
list, the court was required to transmit a written report to
that effect to the Secretary of War with an opinion as to the
proportion of the monthly pay of the applicant, which would
be equivalent to the degree of disability ascertained. The
Secretary of War was then to place the name of the appli-
cant upon the pension list of the United States, in conform-
ity to the opinion of the court and accompanying certifi-
cates. But when the Secretary suspected imposition or
mistake, he was empowered to withhold the name from the
pension list, and make report of the matter to Congress for
consideration at the next session. Thus each Circuit Court
was virtually constituted a bureau for the examination and
allowance of pension claims, with its decisions subject to
revision by the Secretary of War and Congress.

The judges promptly denied the power of Congress to
impose upon them the duties set forth in the above act.
Chief Justice John Jay and Associate Justice William Cush-
ing, of the Supreme Court, sitting with James Duane, dis-
trict judge, as a Circuit Court for the district of New York,
sent, in April, 1792, to President Washington a letter of pro-
test, which they desired him to communicate to Congress.1
With boldness and unanimity they asserted the independence
of the judiciary as a distinct and co-ordinate branch of the
government. Neither the legislative nor the executive
branch, argued they, could constitutionally assign to the
judicial any duties but such as were properly judicial and to
be performed in a judicial manner. The duties imposed by

1 American State Papers, Miscellaneous, i, 49-53. See also Carson, Supreme
Court of United States, 162-163.

28 MILITARY PENSION LEGISLATION [246

the act in question were not of that description, since the
decisions of the court were made subject to the considera-
tion of the Secretary of War and to the revision of the legis-
lature ; whereas, under the Constitution, no executive officer,
nor even the legislature, was authorized to sit as a court of
errors on the judicial acts or opinions of the Circuit Courts.
Similar opinions were expressed in letters to the President
from the judges of the Pennsylvania and North Carolina Cir-
cuit Courts. The judges of the New York Circuit were, how-
ever, willing to regard themselves as commissioners, desig-
nated by the act, and therefore at liberty either to accept or
decline the office. Since the objects of the law were benev-
olent, they agreed to adjudicate claims as commissioners,
adjourning the Circuit Court for that purpose.

As a consequence of the refusal of the Pennsylvania Cir-
cuit Court to recognize the validity of the act of 1792, At-
torney General Randolph, at the August term of that year,
made application to the Supreme Court for a writ of man-
damus directing the Pennsylvania court to proceed in the
case of William Hayburn, an applicant for a pension.1 No
decision was ever pronounced, as, while the matter was yet
under consideration, Congress passed a law providing other
regulations for the granting of pensions.

Some of the judges, styling themselves commissioners,
adjudicated claims under the disputed law.2 Such adjudica-
tions were declared invalid by the Supreme Court in Feb-
ruary, 1794, in the case of Yale Todd, a Connecticut claim-
ant.3 But this decision, while denying the authority of the
judges to act in the capacity of commissioners under the
act of 1792, did not touch the main question of the consti-
tutionality of that law. There seems to have been no formal
judicial decision on that point, but the letters of the judges

1 Hayburn's Case, 2 Dallas, 409.

* American State Papers, Claims, 56-67. 3 13 Howard, 52, note.

247] RE VOL UTIONAR Y, 1789-1878 2$

clearly indicate their opinion. The case is important as
being the first in the history of the Federal Government in
which a law was rendered of no effect by the virtual, if not
formally expressed, opinion of the Supreme Court that it was
repugnant to the Constitution.1

Congress yielded to the contention of the Judiciary by
passing the act of February 28, 1793, which repealed the
objectionable sections of the act of 1792 and established
new regulations.2 All evidence relative to invalids was to be
taken upon oath before the judge of the district in which the
invalids resided, or before any three persons commissioned
by the judge. Claimants were required to prove decisive
disability resulting from known wounds received while in the
actual line of duty in the service of the United States during
the Revolutionary War. Each district judge was directed to
transmit a list of claims, accompanied by all required evi-
dence, to the Secretary of War for comparison with the mus-
ter rolls and other documents in his office. The Secretary
was then to make a statement of the cases to Congress,
which reserved to itself the power of final action in the al-
lowance of claims. No claim under the law was to be
allowed unless presented within two years from its passage.

The evidence in support of many of the applications
under this act was very defective. Muster rolls were lost,
and the proof, in most cases, depended alone upon the affi-
davits produced by the claimants. The Secretary of War
transmitted to Congress lists of claimants as provided by
law. In one instance, Congress granted pensions to all per-
sons included in the Secretary's report whom he should find
to have clearly established claims under the law.3 In acting
upon later lists, Congress specifically named each individual

1 See Thayer, Cases on Constitutional Law, Parts i and ii, 105 note, and also
131 U. S., Appendix, ccxxxv.

2 U. S. Statutes at Large, i, 324. 3 Ibid., i, 392.

30 MILITAR Y PENSION LEGISLA TION [248

to whom a pension- was allowed, together with the rate at
which he was to be paid.1 A full pension for a non-commis-
sioned officer or private soldier was fixed at five dollars per
month, and for a commissioned officer at one-half of his
monthly pay.

Between 1793 and 1803, no important alterations in the
existing Revolutionary pension laws were made. There
seems to have prevailed a laudable disposition to guard the
interests of the Government against claims of an unreasona-
ble or fraudulent character. On a proposition in 1798 to
amend the acts respecting invalid pensioners, the Committee
on Claims of the House of Representatives, after reviewing
the course of pension legislation to that date, reported that
" the provisions heretofore made for admission of claims of
this nature have been as extensive as the principles of jus-
tice, equity or good policy required ; and that it would not
be expedient to make any alteration in the existing laws."3

Such views, however, did not long prevail. The expira-
tion, in 1795, of the act of 1793 had left the statute books
for some time without any general provision for the further
admission of Revolutionary pension claims. But the solici-
tations of claimants continued, and, in 1803, Congress was
prevailed upon to enact a new invalid pension law.s Rates
remained as under the act of 1793, and the method of ad-
ministration was much the same. The most important
change in procedure was the endowment of the Secretary of
War with the power of final decision in the allowance of
claims.

A supplementary act of March 3, 1805, extended the
benefits of the pension law to those who, in consequence of
known wounds received in the military service during the
Revolution, had at any period since the war become and con-

1 For example, see Act of April 20, 1796, U. S. Statutes at Large, i, 454.

3 American State Papers, Claims, 216-218. *U. S. Statutes at Large, ii, 242.

2 49 ] RE VOL u TIONAR Y, 1789-1878 3 1

tinued disabled so as to render them unable to procure a
subsistence by manual labor.1 This opened the way for the
tracing of the disabilities and ills of later life to wounds from
which the claimants had apparently enjoyed a complete re-
covery.

Invalid pension legislation on behalf of soldiers of the
Revolution reached its most comprehensive form in the act
of April 10, i8o6,2 and supplementary provisions. This
liberal law repealed all former enactments conferring pen-
sions on Revolutionary invalids, and from the date of its
passage became the fundamental provision upon which the
claims of such invalids were thereafter based. It did not, of
course, affect pensions already granted. Within the scope
of this act of 1806 were included all those classes of claim-
ants who had been provided for by previous legislation, and,
in addition, all volunteers, militia and State troops, who had
served against the common enemy in the Revolutionary War.
Disability must have been the result of known wounds re-
ceived in the line of duty, and must have been such as to
render the applicant wholly or partially unable to procure a
subsistence by manual labor. Desertion was a bar to a
claim. The method of taking evidence and examining
claims was similar to that under the laws of 1/93 and 1803.
Congress, however, once more reserved to itself the power
of final action in placing names on the pension list, which
had been delegated to the Secretary of War under the act of
1803.

Rates of pensions under the act of 1806 were the same as
under previous laws. Each pension was to commence on the
date of the completion of the testimony. For the first time,
regulations were established in accordance with which an in-
crease of pension might be granted by Congress in cases
where justice required, but, with the increase added, no more

1 U. S. Statutes at Large, ii, 345. 8 Ibid., ii, 376.

32 MILITARY PENSION LEGISLATION [250

than a total disability rate might be paid. The sale, trans-
fer or mortgage of the whole or any part of a pension before
the same became due was declared invalid. Claims in pro-
cess of adjudication were not prejudiced by this law, and its
operation was limited to six years from the date of its pass-
age.

In the execution of the law of 1806, Congress passed a
series of acts pensioning long lists of claimants at varying
rates per month. One of these acts which became law on
April 25, 1808, contained two important additional sections.1

Section 3 directed the Secretary of War to place on the
pension list of the United States all persons who remained
on the pension lists of any of the States, and were placed
there in consequence of disability occasioned by known
wounds received during the Revolutionary War, whether on
land or sea, in the service of the United States or of any
particular State, in the regular army, militia or volunteers.
This completed the assumption by the United States of the
payment of all the Revolutionary invalid pensioners in the
States. Section 4 of this act of 1 808 extend the benefits of
the act of 1 806 to all persons who had been disabled since the
Revolutionary War, while in the line of duty, in the actual
service of the United States, whether belonging to the
military establishment, or the militia, or any volunteer corps,
called into service under authority of the United States.

When the act of 1806 expired by limitation in 1812, it
was renewed and continued in force for six years by the act
of April 25, 1812. It was afterwards revived for one year
by the act of May 15, 1820, and for periods of six years
each by the acts of February 4, 1822, and May 24, i828.2
These later renewals were subject to amendments which had
been made, and which will be mentioned in due time.

A step in the direction of increased pension expenditures

1 U. S. Statutes at Large, ii, 491. * Ibid., ii, 718; iii, 596, 650; iv, 307.

251] RE VOL UTIONAR Y, 1789-1878 3 3

was taken in the act of April 24, I8I6.1 About the time of
the passage of this law, the United States was expending
annually $120,000 for pensions. There were 185 officers
and 1,572 non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the
Revolutionary army on the rolls, and 52 officers and 391
soldiers who had become disabled since the Revolution,
making an aggregate of 2,200 pensioners.2 The rate of a
full pension for a private was increased from five to eight
dollars per month. Pensions of first lieutenants and com-
missioned officers below that grade were also increased to
the extent of two or three dollars per month. The act ap-
plied both to those already on the rolls, and to those of the
grades mentioned who should thereafter be granted pensions.
It was estimated that the annual expenditure for pensions
would be increased to about $200,000, including the claims
up to that time allowed on account of the War of 1812.
Under carefully executed invalid laws, the annual payments
for Revolutionary pensions had apparently reached a maxi-
mum.

We now come to the time when a new principle was intro-
duced into national pension legislation by the enactment of
the Revolutionary service pension law of March 18, i8i8.3
With this measure came unsavory scandals and a startling
increase of pension expenditures. In his message of De-
cember, 1817, President Monroe had recommended to Con-
gress some provision for the indigent survivors of the Revo-
lutionary army, of whom he thought there were but few.4
General Bloomfield, of New Jersey, promptly reported to
the House a bill designed to carry the President's recom-
mendation into effect. The extended debates on the meas-

1 U. S. Statutes at Large, iii, 296.

J American State Papers, Claims, 473-474.

5 U. S. Statutes at Large, iii, 410.

* Annals of Congress, 1st Sess., I5th Cong., 1817-1818, i, 19.

34 MILITAR Y PENSION LEGISLA TION [252

ure served to show a wide diversity of opinion in Congress
regarding the proper nature and scope of pension legisla-
tion, and the law finally enacted was quite different from the
original bill.

In both Houses there were pronounced majorities in favor
of the passage of a service pension law, but, as to its de-
tailed provisions, there was lack of harmony. Some wished
a pure service pension law; others advocated a measure
based upon " service and poverty." The advocates of a
service law knew nothing as to the probable number of ap-
plications which would follow its passage, nor had they any
conception of its probable cost. Such estimates as they
attempted proved ridiculously small in the light of later
experience.1

Advocates of the proposed bill pointed complacently to
the surplus in the Treasury. The burden of their argument
was eulogy of the Revolutionary soldiers, praise of their ser-
vices, descriptions of the privations they had undergone,
and an appeal to the gratitude of the country. '• Let us
show the world that Republics are not ungrateful," said one
of the speakers. Another appealed to Congress thus :
"Permit not him, who, in the pride of vigor and youth,
wasted his health and shed his blood in freedom's cause,
with desponding heart and palsied limbs to totter from door
to door, bowing his yet untamed soul to meet the frozen
bosom of reluctant charity."

In the Senate, this service pension law was opposed by a
minority, strong in arguments but weak in numbers. Sena-
tor William Smith of South Carolina opposed the general
principle of the measure, and asserted that it was a way to
get rid of a little money in the Treasury not immediately
wanted. To those who supported the bill from sentiment,

1 In the Senate, Goldsborough, of Maryland, estimated the number of appli-
cants under the law as, at the largest, less than 1900.

253] RE VOL UTIONAR y, 1789-1878 3 5

he said that good feelings were a miserable guide to a legis-
lator. Nor did he believe that Congress had any power
under the Constitution to pass such a law, the many prece-
dents notwithstanding. The following extract from his
speech seems almost prophetic in the light of later experi-
ence:

" As an argument, it would appear} to avoid an inquiry into the
propriety of this measure, we are told such a case can never happen
again — that you can never have another Revolutionary War. Will
not those brave men who fought your battles and triumphed so gal-
lantly over the enemy at Chippewa, Plattsburg, Erie, Champlain,
Orleans and on the seas, have the same claims upon their country
some thirty-five years hence, when time shall have thrown a veil over
all the minute circumstances, and it shall be forgotten that they re-
tired from the army with reluctance, after being abundantly paid and
abundantly honored ?

Their claim will be as great, and the precedent you are about to
make will be followed. One army you say gained your independence,,
and the other has given it a new character, and made it worth main-
taining. They have released your country from its degraded state of
impressments, paper blockades, royal orders in council, and imperial
decrees, and given it as high a grade in the scale of nations as your
independence. This will be the beginning of a military pension sys-
tem which posterity may regret" '

The force of Senator Smith's words is felt when we re-
member that service pension laws, more or less limited, have
been passed on account of the War of 1812, the Mexican
War, and the Indian Wars ; and that the Dependent Pen-
sion Law of 1 890, enacted on account of the Civil War, is a
near approach to a service law, and has already drawn hun-
dreds of millions of dollars from the national Treasury. The
service pension system, inaugurated in 1818, has truly be-
come a burden which posterity regrets.

1 For Senator Smith's speech, see Annals of Congress, 1st Sess., I5th Cong., i,
140-150. The italics in the extract are introduced by the writer.

3 6 MI LI TAR Y PENSION LE GISLA TION [254

The act of 1818 passed the House of Representatives
without division. In the Senate, its scope was considerably
limited by amendments, but only a small minority actively
opposed it. The act provided that every person who had
served in the Revolutionary War until its close, or for the
term of nine months or longer at any period of the war, on
the Continental establishment or in the navy, and who was a
resident citizen of the, United States, and was by reason of
his reduced circumstances in life " in need of assistance from
his country for support/' should receive a pension. If an
officer, the rate was twenty dollars per month, and if a non-
commissioned officer or private, eight dollars per month,
during life. No person was to be entitled to the benefits of
the act until he should have relinquished his claim to every
pension heretofore allowed him by the laws of the United
States.

Evidence in support of claims was taken before the dis-
trict judges of the United States, or before any judge or
court of record of the county, state or territory in which the
applicant resided. It consisted of the claimant's own decla-
ration, supported by such other testimony as he might be
able to procure. If satisfied of the claimant's service, the
judge was required to transmit the testimony and proceed-
ings in the case to the Secretary of War, whose duty it was,
if he considered the claim a legal one, to place the appli-
cant on the pension list of the United States. The statute
prescribed no method of proof of the claimant's need of
assistance, but the regulations of the War Department re-
quired his oath and the certificate of the judge to establish
that fact.1 It is to be noted that, in the execution of this
law, Congress gave the Secretary of War final power in the
allowance of claims. Pensions, if allowed, were to com-
mence from the date of the applicant's declaration.

1 American State Papers, Claims, 682-684.

2 5 5 j RE VOL UTIONAR Y, 1789-1878 3 7

If the members of Congress, who anticipated but few
claims under the act of 1818, were sincere, they must have
been astounded at the eager rush for pensions when the law
came into operation. The country at large was certainly
surprised and indignant. By the middle of September, the
number of applications was so great that it was not possible
with every exertion to act upon them as fast as they came
in.1 Flagrant abuses of the act of 1818 were the subject of
severe comment in the newspapers of the time.2 Men of
means were charged with having made themselves out to be
paupers in order to receive the benefits of the act, and others
were said to have deposited the whole amount of their pen-
sions in savings banks. The American people did not relish
an increase of the annual pension expenditure from two or
three hundred thousand dollars to two or three millions. In
Connecticut, so great was the popular indignation at pension
frauds that a meeting was held " to ascertain the names of
the pensioners, and cause those to be erased from the list, if
possible, who should not receive the public money, meant to
be distributed only to the needy and destitute."3

At the first session of the Sixteenth Congress, in Decem-
ber, 1819, the question of pension frauds demanded and re-
ceived attention. The repeal of the act of 1818 found some
advocates, but this was deemed inexpedient. Secretary
Calhoun admitted that, in spite of every precaution, the War
Department had probably been imposed upon to a consider-
able extent as to the circumstances of claimants. His re-
ports also showed that, in the number of pensioners under
the law, the leading states were as follows : New York, Mass-
achusetts, District of Maine, Connecticut, Vermont, New

1 Niks' Register, xv, 63.

1 Ibid., xvii, 99. Contains extracts from various newspapers.

3 Ibid., xvii, 321.

3 8 MILITAR Y PENSION LE GISLA TION [256

Hampshire and Pennsylvania. The entire absence of
Southern States from this list is noticeable.1

Public indignation at exposures of fraud led Congress to
enact remedial legislation in the act of May i, i82O.2 This
required pensioners under the act of 1818, and also all who
should thereafter apply for pensions under that law, to sub-
mit sworn schedules of their whole estate and income, ex-
clusive of necessary clothing and bedding. They were also
required to take oath that they had not disposed of any part
of their property with the intention of bringing themselves
within the provisions of the law, and that they had not in
person or in trust property or income of any kind other than
that shown in the schedules subscribed by them. The Sec-
retary of War was authorized to strike from the list of pen-
sioners those persons, who, in his opinion, were not in such
indigent circumstances as to be unable to support themselves
without the assistance of their country. Revolutionary in-
valid pensioners, who had relinquished their pensions in
order to avail themselves of the act of 1818, and who, by
virtue of this supplementary act, might be stricken from the
pension list, were to be restored to the pensions re-
linquished.

The act of 1820 caused the names of thousands of pen-
sioners to be stricken from the rolls. Many of those who
applied for continuance suffered a rejection of their claims,
and others, without hope of favorable action, failed to exhibit
the required schedules, and were consequently dropped.
The fact that there had been great frauds and impositions on
the generosity of the Government was clearly established.3

Secretary Calhoun made a report to the Senate, in Feb-
ruary, 1823, on the operation of the acts of March 18, 1818,

1 See American State Papers, Claims, 682-684, 703-704.

1 U. S. Statutes at Large, iii, 569.

3 Regarding execution of Act of 1820, see Niles' Register, xix, 243.

257] REVOLUTIONARY, 1789-1878 39

and May I, 1820.' The total number of persons whose
claims had been admitted under both laws was 18,880, and
of these 12,331 were on the rolls on September 4, 1822.
The remainder had for the most part been removed by the
operation of the act of i82O.2 " In 1818, the sum of $104,-
900.85 was paid to pensioners under the act of that year; in
1819, $1,811,328.96; in 1820, the sum paid was only $1,-
373,849.41, the list of pensioners having been reduced by
the operation of the act of 1st May, 1820; in 1821, the sum
of $1,200,000 was paid, and, in the year 1822, the sum of
$1,833,936.30." The apparent increase in 1822 was due to
the fact that a deficiency of $451,836 for the previous year
was included. A greater number having applied for pen-
sions in 1821 than had been anticipated, the estimates for
that year had proved very deficient, and the amount was made
up in the next year's appropriation.

By the act of March I, 1823, Congress provided for the
restoration to the pension list of those persons who had
been dropped on account of the evidence afforded by their
schedules of property, but had since become so reduced in
circumstances as to need a pension. 3 The practical effect of
this measure was to return to the pension list a large number
of those persons whom the act of 1820 had removed.

The pension business had now become so great that Con-
gress finally abandoned the attempt to participate in the de-
tailed administration of general laws. The fourth section of
an act of March 3, i8i9,4 gave the Secretary of War power
to place persons entitled to invalid pensions under the act of
April 10, 1806, and under the fourth section of the act of
April 25, 1808, upon the pension list without reporting to

1 American State Papers, Claims, 885.
3 There were, of course, some removals caused by death.

8 U. S. Statutes at Large, iii, 782. Found in statutes among acts of March 3,
1823. * Ibid., iii, 526.

40 MILITAR Y PENSION LEGISLA TION [258

Congress for final action. As to service pensions, this power
had already been conferred upon the Secretary by the orig-
inal terms of the act of 1818. In the period during which
it exercised the power of final action, Congress had usually
been guided by the recommendations of the Secretary of
War.

For a few years, there was no further Revolutionary pen-
sion legislation of importance. But soon the troublesome
question of the claims of the Revolutionary officers, who
had been entitled to half pay for life under the resolution of
October 21, 1780, came up for consideration. The survi-
vors were not satisfied with the results of the commutation
and settlement of their half pay, and, at intervals from 1810
to 1827, they besought Congress for an allowance from the
National Treasury. President John Quincy Adams, in his
message of December, 1827, recommended to the considera-
tion of Congress " the debt, rather of justice than gratitude,
to the surviving warriors of the Revolutionary War."1
Congress took action in the passage of the law of May 15,
1828.*

This act granted full pay for life, beginning with March 3,
1826, to the surviving Revolutionary officers in the Continen-
tal line, who had been entitled to half pay for life by the
resolution of October 21, 1780. The same allowance was
also made for non-commissioned officers and soldiers, who
enlisted for the war and served until its end, and thereby be-
came entitled to receive the reward of eighty dollars prom-
ised by the resolution of May 15, 1778. The beneficiaries
under this act were required to give up other pensions which
they might be receiving under the laws of the United States,
but, under later amendments, were permitted to retain in-
valid pensions. The act of 1828 was not at first regarded as

1 House Journal, 1st Sess., 2Oth Cong., 23. 2 U. S. Statutes at Large, iv, 269.

259] REVOLUTIONARY, 1789-1878 41

an ordinary pension law, and it was executed by the Secre-
tary of the Treasury. In 1835 this function was transferred
to the Secretary of War. At the end of 1828, about 850
persons had been allowed the full pay for life.1

About 1830, the rapid extinction of the public debt
promised soon to leave the United States with a considerable
annual surplus in the Treasury. There was great opposition
to a reduction in existing tariff rates, and, under the circum-
stances, proposals were made to spend more money for pen-
sions. President Jackson, in his message of December,
1829, suggested the extension of the benefits of the pension
laws to all Revolutionary soldiers who were unable to main-
tain themselves in comfort.2

In accordance with Jackson's suggestion, there was a
prompt movement in Congress to widen the scope of the
pension laws. One bill, introduced for this purpose, passed
the House, but was indefinitely postponed in the Senate.
In debate upon this measure, Senator Hayne of South Caro-
lina, on April 29, 1830, made a notable speech in which he
reviewed the course of pension legislation to that time.3

While not entirely accurate in details, he showed a good
knowledge of the general subject. He opposed the at-
tempt to admit to the company of the war-worn veterans of
the Revolution a host, many of whom had never even seen
an enemy, " mere sunshine and holiday soldiers, the hang-
ers-on of the camp, men of straw, substitutes, who never en-
listed until after the preliminaries of peace were signed."
Down to the year 1818, as he pointed out, the national pen-
sion system had been based upon the principle of disability.
The law of that year had abandoned this principle, and
made service and poverty the basis of pensions. The atten-

1 Report of Sec V of Treasury, State Papers, 2d Sess., 2Oth Cong., ii, no. 68.

2 Senate Journal, ist Sess., 2ist Cong., 1829-1830, 17.

3 Benton's Debates, x, 547-555.

42 MI LI TAR Y PENSION LE GISLA TION [ 2 60

tion of the Senate was called to the circumstances attending
the passage of the act of 1818, and to the resulting scandal
and fraud. With the experience afforded by that law in
mind, the senator urged that it was folly to open a wide door
to similar and greater evils.

In the latter part of his speech, Hayne asserted that there
was an intimate connection between the proposed increase of
pension expenditures and the maintenance of a protective
tariff policy. He said :

" I consider this bill as a branch of a great system, calculated and
intended to creatj a permanent charge upon the Treasury, with a
view to delay the payment of the public debt, and to postpone, in-
definitely, the claims of the people for a reduction of taxes, when
the debt shall be finally extinguished. It is an important link in
the chain by which th? American system party hope to bind the
people, now and forever, to the payment of the enormous duties
deemed necessary for the protection of domestic manufactures."

Senator Hayne thought schemes for internal improve-
ment, for colonization, education, distribution of surplus
revenue, and many others " all admirably calculated to pro-
mote the great end — the absorption of the public revenue.'1

"But," said he, 4<of all the measures devised for this purpose, this
grand pension system, got up last year, and revived during the
present session, is by far the most specious, the most ingeniously
contrived, and the best calculated for the accomplishment of the
object. Here gentlemen are supplied with a fine topic for declama-
tion. ' Gratitude for Revolutionary services !' ' the claims of the
poor soldiers !' — these are the popular topics which it is imagined
will carry away the feelings of the people, and reconcile them to a
measure which must unquestionably establish a permanent charge
upon the Treasury to an enormous amount, and thereby furnish a
plausible excuse for keeping up the system of high duties."

Under the existing tariff arrangements, Hayne claimed
that the South was paying the greater portion of the duties
which supplied the Treasury, and that the public money

UNIVERSITY

REVOLUTIONARY, 1789-1878 43

was expended chiefly in the North. This was nowhere bet-
ter illustrated than in the pension system. From official re-
ports, he stated that the whole amount of appropriations
for pensions under the act of 1818 had been about $14,-
175,000, and that there had been paid to all other pen-
sioners from the beginning of the government, $6,360,000,
making a total of $20,535,000. Of the sixteen thousand
pensioners on the roll at the last report, about twelve
thousand resided in the ten States north of Maryland, and
four thousand in the Southern and Western States. From
this rough basis, Hayne drew the conclusion that about fif-
teen of the twenty millions paid to pensioners had gone
North, and about five millions to the South and West. He
thought an extension of the pension system would be likely
to operate in the same way, and, when this system degen-
erated into a mere scheme for the distribution of the public
money, the South had a right to complain of its gross in-
equality.

The opposition to an extension of the pension laws, so
ably represented by Hayne, prevailed in the Twenty-First
Congress, but in the next Congress the matter came up
again, and pension bills were introduced into House and
Senate. The House bill was extravagantly liberal. Mr.
Davis of South Carolina said that its passage would be a
signal that would " wake up from the slumbers of the grave
almost as many dead militia as the last trumpet; not
harmless ghosts and spectres, but substantial pensioners,
tax receivers, and consumers of the substance of the people." x
Mr. Johnston of Virginia pronounced it not an " old soldier's
bill," but rather " a waste dam to let off surplus revenue."
This measure passed the House by an overwhelming
majority, but the Senate preferred to consider its own bill.
This was less extravagant than that of the House, and was

1 Congressional Debates, Vol. viii, Part ii, 2434.

t ',%

44 MILITAR Y PENSION LE G1SLA TION [ 2 62

in form supplementary to the act of 1828. Hayne led a
vigorous but unsuccessful opposition. Senator Foot, who
was in charge of the bill, estimated that it would produce
an annual charge on the Treasury not to exceed $450,000.
The Senate's measure was passed, accepted by the House,
and was approved by the President on June 7, 1832.*

This is probably the most important act passed on ac-
count of Revolutionary services. It granted to all who had
completed, at one or more terms, a total service of two
years during the Revolutionary War, whether in Continental
or State troops, volunteers or militia, or in the navy, and
who were not entitled to any benefit under the act of May
15, 1828, full pay for life according to rank, not to exceed
a captain's pay, to commence from March 4, 1831. All who
had completed a total sendee of not less than six months
were to receive for life an annuity bearing the same propor-
tion to the amount granted those who had served two
years, as did the terms of service to the full two years.
Every one who received the benefits of this law was required
to relinquish any pension received by him under any other
Revolutionary pension act, but the amendment of February
19, 1833, excepted invalid pensioners from the operation of
this provision.

The Secretary of the Treasury was originally charged with
the execution of the act of 1832, but this duty was trans-
ferred to the Secretary of War by the resolution of June 28,
1832. Evidence in support of claims was taken in the form
of declarations upon oath before a court of record in the
county where the applicant resided. In the case of the
regular or Continental troops, the evidence could be com-
pared with the muster rolls in the possession of the War
Department, but, in the case of the State troops, volunteers

1 U. S. Statutes at Large, iv, 529.

263] REVOLUTIONARY, 1789-1878 45

and militia, the Department possessed no rolls except of the
State troops of Virginia and the militia of New Hampshire.

This lack of rolls necessitated, in the consideration of a
large number of applications, entire reliance upon the sworn
declarations of the claimant and his witnesses, except in so
far as his narrative of service could be compared with the
known events of the period of the alleged service. Much
importance was attached to traditionary evidence, such as a
general belief in the neighborhood that the claimant had
been a Revolutionary soldier. This was required to be
established by the evidence of the nearest clergyman and
other persons of character and standing in the community.1

These provisions were extremely liable to abuse, and
frauds soon came to light in various sections of the country.
The scandal of the act of 1818 was repeated. There was
such a rush of applicants that it was thought incredible that
there should be so many Revolutionary soldiers alive. The
annual charge on the Treasury, instead of being $450,000, as
had been estimated in the Senate, was four or five times that
amount. The Senate ordered the publication of the list of
pensioners, classified by States and counties, and the trans-
mission of each State's list to its courts of record.2 Thought-
ful men began to question the moral and political effect of
the whole pension system of the United States. Upon a
resolution to extend the law of 1832 to those who had fought
in Indian wars, Mr. Bouldin of Virginia said in the House of
Representatives, on December 27, 1833, that "the practical
effects of the system had been to discourage private industry,
and lead a large portion of the people of the United States
to look to the Treasury as the unfailing spring from which
they were to receive every good. The poor, instead of being

1 For full regulations under the Act of 1832, see Executive Documents^ 2d Sess.,
25th Cong., 1837-1838, v, no. 118, 84-91.

a Senate Journal, 1st Sess., 23d Cong., 1833-1834, 404.

46 MILITAR Y PENSION LE GISLA TION [2 64

relieved in their own neighborhoods, were pensioned on the
United States." x

In the fall of 1834, most startling frauds under the act of
1832 came to light. Numerous indictments for perjury and
forgery in the prosecution of pension claims were found at
the session of the federal court in western Virginia, and many
of the accused were said to have fled to Texas.2 In Vermont,
the Government was swindled out of an amount estimated at
from forty, to two or three hundred thousand dollars through
payments to fictitious pensioners.3 Here the frauds were
perpetrated by Robert Temple, formerly pension agent,
president of the Bank of Rutland, and a man of great wealth
and prominence in the State. Alarmed at the prospective
publication of the pension list, he went to Washington, and
attempted to bribe a clerk to alter the list in order to con-
ceal his crimes. The clerk disclosed the affair to his supe-
riors, and steps were taken to secure further evidence in the
matter. Temple, learning that he was about to be arrested,
committed suicide at his home in Vermont. Other frauds
were discovered in Kentucky and New York.

These disclosures received the attention of the Commis-
sioner of Pensions in his annual report presented on Novem-
ber 7, i834.4 He said the most daring and iniquitous frauds
had been discovered to have been perpetrated by men of
high standing in society, whose official stations and respecta-
bility placed them far above suspicion. In every such case
which had come to the knowledge of the Department, steps
had been taken to punish the offenders. Prosecutions, in
some instances, had been successful, and terminated in the
confinement of the criminals in State prisons. In other

1 Cong. Debates, vol.x, Part ii, 1833-1834, 2245.
* Nile's Register, xlvii, 97, 147.

3 Ibid., 105-106. (Extracts from several current newspapers.)

4 Executive Documents, 2d Sess., 23rd Cong., 1834-1835, i, no. 2, 273-280.

265] REVOLUTIONARY, 1789-1878 47

cases, they had fled from justice. Wherever there was a
prospect of recovering money improperly paid, a suit had
been commenced.

The following extract from the Commissioner's report
shows the bold character of the frauds :

"It has been ascertained that papers have been presented at this
Department purporting to contain proof of Revolutionary service,
taken in open court, bearing the official seal of the clerk of the
court, and duly certified by him, when, in fact, the persons in whose
behalf the claims were made, never had any but an imaginary exist-
ence. In some instances, the claims have been admitted, and money
has been paid. In other cases, money has been paid to a period after
the time when the pensioners died ; and this last mentioned descrip-
tion of fraud was effected by means of falsifying the certificates of
a clerk of a court of record."

After giving a detailed description of the way in which the
frauds were in some particular instances perpetrated, the
Commissioner recommended the appointment of officers in
each State and territory " for the purpose of examining in
in person all pensioners and applicants for pensions." He
reported that there were 27,978 pensioners on the rolls under
the act of 1832, and that the amount sent to agents in 1834
for payments under this act was about $2,325,000. The
whole national pension roll contained about 43,000 names.

The pension frauds were further discussed in the annual
report of the Secretary of War,1 and in the President's mes-
sage of December, 1834." Secretary Cass pointed out that,
as these disclosures had been the result of accident, it was
impossible to judge to what extent frauds might have been
committed. President Jackson recommended an actual in-
spection of the pensioners in each State. The object of this
inspection should be twofold, to look into the original justice

1 Executive Documents, 2d Sess., 23d Cong., 1834-1835,!, no. 2, 36-38.
»/«</., 18-19.

4 8 MIUTAR Y PENSION LE GISLA 7 ION [ 2 66

of the claims, and to ascertain, in all cases, whether the
claimant was living, and this by actual personal inspection.
Notwithstanding these recommendations, Congress took no
measures to bring about a reform of the pension system.

The expenditures of the United States for Revolutionary
and other pensions, from the beginning of the Federal Govern-
ment to September 30, 1834, are shown by a report of the
Secretary of the Treasury to have been something over
$33,ioo,ooo.1 Up to the close of 1833, the amount was
about $29,600,000. The States which received most largely
of this latter amount rank as follows : New York, $6, 1 86,000 :
Massachusetts, $3,331,000; Pennsylvania, $2,644,000;
Maine, $2,115,000; Connecticut, $1,942,000; Vermont, $i,-
923,000; New Hampshire, $1,697,000, and Virginia, $i,-
649,000. A study of these figures will show why the most
earnest opposition to lavish pension laws came from the
South.

Thus far in our study of Revolutionary pension legislation,
we have found scarcely any provision for the widows or
children of deceased soldiers. By the resolution of August
24, 1780, half pay for seven years was granted to the
widows or orphans of such Revolutionary officers as had
died or should die in the service, but the widows of non-
commissioned officers and soldiers were not included in the
benefits of this measure. The resolution expired before the
inauguration of the Federal Government, but was renewed
for two years by the act of March 23, I792.3

With the exception of sundry provisions for the payment
of pension money, accrued and unpaid at the death of pen-
sioners, to their widows, children or legal representatives,
there was no general legislation for the benefit of the widows
of Revolutionary officers or soldiers from 1792 to 1836. At

1 Executive Documents, 2d Sess., 23d Cong., 1834-1835, iii, no. 89, 32.
• U. S. Statutes at Large, i, 243.

267] REVOLUTIONARY, 1789-1878 . 49

intervals, propositions were made for the granting of pen-
sions to Revolutionary widows, but none were successful
until the passage of the act of July 4, 1836.' The third
section of this law provided that if any Revolutionary soldier,
who would have been entitled to a pension under the act of
June 7, 1832, had died, leaving a widow whose marriage
took place before the expiration of his last period of service,
such widow, so long as she remained unmarried, should be
entitled to receive the pension which might have been al-
lowed to her husband, if living at the time the act was
passed. In applications under this act, the Secretary of War
was to adopt such forms of evidence as the President should
prescribe.

The act of 1836 was the first of a long series of laws for
the benefit of Revolutionary widows. These grew more and
more liberal as the years passed by. To follow the intrica-
cies of this legislation might involve us in some confusion.
We may say, in short, that provision was first made for those
widows who married during the Revolution, then for those who
married prior to 1794, later for those who married prior to
1800, and finally for all Revolutionary widows, regardless of
the date of marriage.2 The pensions granted to widows
were to continue during widowhood, and, in amount, were
the same as those to which their husbands would have been
entitled under the existing laws, if living.

There yet remain to be considered a few minor Revolu-
tionary pension measures. The act of April I, 1864, granted
one hundred dollars additional annual pension to each of the
surviving soldiers of the Revolution then on the pension
rolls.3 By November of that year seven of the number who
were the intended recipients of this special bounty had died
at an average age of about one hundred years, and but five

1 U. S. Statutes at Large, v, 127.

2 Ibid., x, 154 and 616. • Ibid., xiii, 39.

50 MILITAR Y PENSION LEGISLA TSOJV [268

were still living.1 For the benefit of these five, Congress
passed the private act of February 27, 1865, granting each
of them a gratuity of three hundred dollars annually during
his natural life, in addition to the pensions already being
paid them according to law.2

By June 30, 1867, all the Revolutionary soldiers on the
pension rolls had died, but, during the following fiscal year,
two other Revolutionary soldiers were pensioned by special
act at $500 per annum. Daniel F. Bakeman, the last survi-
vor, died on April 5, 1869. On June 30, 1869, the names of
887 Revolutionary widows were still borne on the rolls, al-
though the actual number living was without doubt some-
what less on account of unreported deaths.3 Some addi-
tional provisions for Revolutionary widows were made in acts
of February 18, 1867, July 27, 1868, and March 9, 1878, but
these were entirely unimportant in their results.4

From the first resolution of August, 1776, to the legisla-
tion of March, 1878, we have reviewed over a century of
Revolutionary pension laws. In the history of those laws,
there has been a constant development of new and more lib-
eral principles. At first, invalid pension provisions were
made. These were broadened and extended until the law of
1818 introduced a new principle by granting pensions based
on service and indigence. Then came the pure service pen-
sion law of 1832. Later, widows' pensions were granted to
those who had married during the progress of the war. As
more liberal tendencies prevailed, the time before which mar-
riage must have occurred was extended to 1794, then to
1800, and finally all limitation was abolished. With respect
to this alone of our wars, the complete effects of all pension

1 Report of Commissioner of Pensions, 1864.

* U. S. Statutes at Large, xiii, 597.

•See Reports of the Commissioner of Pensions, 1867, 1868, 1869.

4 U. S. Statutes at Large, xiv, 566; xv. 235; xx, 27.

269] RE VOL UTI ONAR y>

legislation have been practically realized. The report of
Commissioner of Pensions J. H. Baker for 1874 gives us
statistics upon which may be based a summary of these
effects.1

In this report the number of soldiers serving in the Rev-
olutionary War is placed at 289,715, although, considering
the inadequacy of the records, this estimate cannot be more
than approximately correct. Of these, the number pen-
sioned for service was 57,623, of whom 20,485 were pen-
sioned under the act of 1818, 1,200 under the act of 1828,
33,425 under the act of 1832, and the remainder under
minor and special acts. The manner of keeping the records
during the early years of the Federal Government makes it
impossible to state the number of Revolutionary soldiers who
were granted invalid pensions for actual disability. There
were probably not more than two or three thousand of such
persons. The entire number of Revolutionary soldiers pen-
sioned by the Federal Government is probably not far
from 60,000. The total amount of pensions paid to such
soldiers from 1818 to 1869, when the last survivor died, was
$46,178,000. The amount paid to Revolutionary invalids
prior to 1818 was about $2,500,000, so that the total pay-
ments of pensions to Revolutionary soldiers may be said to
roughly approximate $49,000,000.

Under the general laws from July 4, 1836, to June 30,
1874, there were pensioned 39,295 Revolutionary widows.
Of these, 5»44^ were married to the deceased soldier prior
to the termination of the war, 28,837 prior to 1794, 1,242
between 1794 and 1800, and 3,750 after 1800. If we take
into consideration the widows of Revolutionary officers who

lrThe Reports of the Commissioners of Pensions are published in several forms
and with varying pagination. This reference may be found in the House Execu-
tive Documents, 2& Sess.,43rd Cong., 1874-1875, Report of the Secretary of the
Interior, i, 667-668.

5 2 MILITAR Y PENSION LE CIS LA TION [270

received the seven years' half pay, the widows who were
pensioned by special acts, and the few widows pensioned
after 1874, the entire number of Revolutionary widows pen-
sioned may be estimated at over 40,000. The total amount
paid to these widows from 1836 to 1874 was $19,604,000.
Making allowance for the early half pay to officers' widows,
and for the payments since 1874, the total payments to
Revolutionary widows amount to about $20,000,000. Thus
the total cost to the Federal Government for pensions to sol-
diers of the Revolution and their widows has been about
$69,000,000, exclusive of the cost of the administration of
the pension laws. We are now spending more than twice
that amount every year for pensions to the soldiers of the
Civil War and their dependent relatives.

In considering the statistics of the pension cost of the
Revolutionary War, it must be remembered that service
pensions were not granted until thirty-five years after the
close of the war, that widows' pensions were practically not
granted until fifty-three years after the close of the war, that
the invalid pension provisions were quite restricted, that
there were no pensions to dependent fathers, mothers, sis-
ters and brothers, and that there were pensioned by general
law only a few orphan children of officers, and by special
act, a few aged daughters of soldiers. Under our present
pension system the cost of a war of equal magnitude would
be vastly greater. Indeed, we may confidently expect that
the cost of paying pensions on account of our recent brief
War with Spain will, in a very few years, amount to more
than the cost of executing the Revolutionary pension laws
of over a century.

CHAPTER III

LEGISLATION BASED ON SERVICE BETWEEN 1789 AND 1 86 1

THE provisions of national pension legislation enacted on
account of military services rendered between 1789 and
1861 may be conveniently classified under five headings.
They were intended to benefit ( I ) the regular army and mis-
cellaneous bodies of militia and volunteers, (2) those who
served on board vessels of the navy and privateers, (3) the
soldiers of the War of 1812, (4) of the various Indian Wars,
and (5) of the Mexican War. These classes, however, can-
not be sharply differentiated. Although there was a dis-
tinct body of navy pension legislation, which requires a
separate treatment, the benefits of that legislation were very
largely conferred on sailors who served in the War of 1812.
So also the pension provisions for the soldiers of the regular
army had force while they were serving in the War of 1812,
the Mexican War and the Indian wars, except in so far as
those provisions were superseded by particular legislation
enacted for the war in question. Some of the laws, which
we are to consider in this chapter, are of quite recent date,
but they have reference to services rendered prior to 1861.

I. Provisions for the Regular Army and Volunteers
Beginning with the act of April 30, 1790, to regulate the
military establishment of the United States, pension pro-
visions of this class were quite numerous, but in the aggre-
gate of small importance. Laws fixing the military peace
establishment, or raising volunteers or militia for various
purposes, commonly included a section dealing with the

271] 53

54 MILITAR Y PENSION LEGISLA TION

matter of pensions. Until 1816, the invalid pension rate
for officers was not to exceed one-half of the monthly pay,
and for non-commissioned officers and privates not to ex-
ceed five dollars per month. The act of April 24, 1816,
however, increased the allowance for non-commissioned
officers and privates to eight dollars per month, and also
increased the rate for the lower grades of commissioned
officers.1 In cases of partial disability, a proportionate
allowance was made. For many years, the only provision
for widows and orphans was a grant of half pay for five
years to the widows, or children under sixteen years of age,
of commissioned officers in the troops of the United States,
dying in the service in consequence of wounds received.
These provisions were based upon sections of the act of

\March 16, 1802, which was the fundamental law for regular
army pensions until the time of the Civil War.2 After

>xl86i, regulars were included under the Civil War legisla-
tion.

Prior to the Civil War, when bodies of militia or volun-
teers were raised for special service, the provisions of the act
of 1802 were frequently extended tp such forces. In time
of war the widows and orphans of private soldiers of both
regular army and militia were usually allowed half pay for
five years in the same manner as the widows and orphans of
commissioned officers. Upon its expiration, this half pay
was often continued from time to time. Eventually, the act
of June 3, 1858, granted to all those surviving widows and
minor children, who had been allowed five years' half pay
under the provisions of any previous general law, a con-
tinuance of such half pay, to commence from the date of
the last payment. This pension was to be paid to widows
during life, and where there was no widow, or in case of her

1 U, S. Statutes at Large, Hi, 296. * Ibid., ii, 132.

273] SERVICE BETWEEN 1789 AND 1861 55

death or remarriage, to the minor children while under the
age of sixteen years.

2. Navy and Privateer Pension Funds
While pension laws in the United States have applied, to
a large extent, to army and navy alike, there was developed /
early in our history a separate pension system applicable to
the navy alone. This was administered apart from the gen-
eral pension system, and requires a distinct treatment. The
navy pension laws were for the most part concerned with
the formation, administration and use of the funds known as
the navy and privateer pension funds.

From the establishment of a naval armament in 1791 up
to about 1800, disability pension provisions were made for
the officers, marines and seamen of the navy in the same
manner and at the same rate as for the regular army. The
acts of March 2, 1799, and April 23, 1800, for the govern-
ment of the navy of the United States, provided for a navy
pension fund, which was to be made up of the Government's
share of money accruing from the sale of prizes taken at sea
by vessels of the navy.1 This fund was to supply half pay-
pensions for life, or during disability, to all disabled officers
and men of the navy. If it should prove insufficient for the
purpose, the public faith was pledged to make up the defi-
ciency. The fund was placed under the management and
direction of the Secretary of the Navy, the Secretary of the
Treasury and the Secretary of War. These commissioners
were required to present an annual report of their operations
to Congress.

It was not until after the outbreak of the War of 1812
with Great Britain that this fund became of much import-
ance. At the close of 1813, the annual outlay for pensions
was about $11,300, and the fund itself amounted to $329, -

1 U. S. Statutes at Large, i, 709; ii, 53.

\

5 6 MILITAR Y PENSION LEGISLA TION

ooo. It was rapidly increased by the Government's share of
prizes taken in the existing war, and the income of the fund
was much in excess of the demands upon it.1

Prior to the War of 1812, only invalid pensions were paid
from the navy pension fund. By acts of 1813 and 1814,
half pay pensions for five years were granted to widows and
orphans of those who should die by reason of wounds re-
ceived in the line of duty in the navy. Between 1817 and
1824, the same allowance was made in cases where the death
of the officer or seaman occurred "in consequence of disease
contracted or of casualties or injuries received, while in the
line of duty." This provision produced too great demands
upon the fund and was repealed in 1824. As they expired
from time to time, the half pay pensions for five years were
usually renewed for a like term. After 1813, the laws grant-
ing and renewing pensions to widows and orphans were nu-
merous and complicated, but not of sufficient importance to
warrant a detailed account of them.

The history of the navy pension fund is not without its
frauds and scandals. In their report for 1815, the commis-
sioners complained of the difficulty of collecting arrearages
of prize money, and of securing a punctual and faithful ac-
countability on the part of those officers who were charged
with the prosecution and sale of prizes. Congress soon after
passed the act of April 16, 1816, which made detailed pro-
vision for the collection and payment into the navy pension
fund of the Government's share of prize money, and fur-
nished means to enforce obedience to the law on the part of
negligent or dishonest officials. In 1832 the Secretary of
the Navy was made sole manager of the fund. The prop-
erty of the fund was to be in the custody of the Treasurer of
the United States, and the Secretary of the Navy was di-
rected to invest the cash balance on hand and all money that

1 American State Papers, Naval Affairs,!, 298, 381-382; iii, 535.

275] SER VICE BE T WEEN I78<? AND l8()I 5 7

might arise to the fund in stock of the bank of the United
States.

At this point we may consider some statistics of the man-
agement and operations of the fund from the close of 1813
down to January i, 1832. The amount of the fund at the
close of 1813 was $329,000. From that time to the close
of 1831, there was paid into it from the sale of prizes $452,-
ooo. During the same period it received in interest and
dividends on stock $822,000, and $584,000 was paid out for
pensions. On January i, 1832, the fund owned about
$1,000,000 in stocks, less than $100,000 being in various
bank stocks. It had suffered a loss of about $100,000 by
the failure of the Columbia Bank. On November i, 1835,
the capital amounted to $1,160,000, but, in consequence of
ill-advised laws of 1834 and 1 837, charges upon the fund be-
came too great to be met from the current income. The se-
curities were gradually sold, and the fund was finally ex-
hausted in 1842. From that time until the Civil War, navy
pensions were paid by annual appropriations made by Con-
gress.1

The laws establishing the navy pension fund remained
upon the statute books, and again came into existence dur-
ing the Civil War. In the division of this work that has
been adopted, the latter part of the history of the fund
should in strictness be given in the chapters on Civil War
pensions, but it will be included here for the sake of con-
tinuity of treatment. With the opening of the war, large
sums of money began to accrue to the Government from the
sale of prizes taken at sea. Congress gave express sanction
to the re-establishment of the fund by the act of July 17,
i862.2 By October i, 1864, Commissioner of Pensions

1 On the management and operations of the navy pension fund, see American
State Papers, Naval Affairs, i, 380-395; iii, 528-530; iv, 44-45, 818-825, 863.

2 U. S. Statutes at Large, xii, 607.

58 MILITAR Y PENSION LEGISLA TION [276

Barrett reported that the navy pension fund amounted to
about $6,056,000, of which more than $4,000,000 had been
paid into the fund during the year preceding that date.
This sum, invested at six per cent., would give an annual in-
come of some $363,000. The total annual rate of the navy
pensions of all classes on June 30, 1864, was only $179,000.
In view of the heavy annual demand for the payment of
army pensions, Commissioner Barrett proposed that a cer-
tain proportion of the money accruing from the sales of
abandoned or confiscated property or land should be simi-
larly used for the creation of an army pension fund. His
suggestion was commended to the consideration of Congress
by the Secretary of the Interior, but not acted upon.1

By the act of 1862, only navy invalid pensions were
chargeable upon the fund. These were paid at the regular
rates established by Civil War pension laws, and from the
office of the Commissioner of Pensions. Congress, by res-
olution of July I, 1864, directed the Secretary of the Navy
to invest the fund in registered securities of the United
States. Its nominal income was greatly increased by the
exchange of the coin interest on these securities for legal
currency of the United States at the existing rate of premium
on gold.2 The income thus created was so far in excess of
all demands that Congress, in 1866, charged upon the fund
Athe payment of pensions to navy widows and dependent
relatives.3 By 1867 the receipts from prize money and sur-
plus income had increased the capital amount to $I3>~
000,000, and there was an uninvested balance of $229,000.

In an act of March 2, 1867, Congress provided for the
payment from the navy pension fund of a half pay allowance
to seamen or marines who have served twenty years, and

1 Regarding the management of the fund, see annual Reports of the Commis-
sioner of Pensions, 1863, 1864, 1865 and 1867.

2 U. S.. Statutes at Large, xiii, 414. 8 Ibid., xiv., 2-3.

277] SERVICE BETWEEN 1789 AND 1861 59

are, from age or infirmity, disabled from sea service. This
allowance is in lieu of being provided with a home in the
United States Naval Asylum at Philadelphia. The same law
authorized the Secretary of the Navy to make from the fund
an allowance to disabled persons who had served in the
navy or marine corps for a period of not less than ten years.1
The naval appropriation act for 1870 also charged upon the
income of the fund the future support of the Naval Asylum
at Philadelphia.2

At the close of the war, the principal of the navy pension
fund invested in United States bonds was $14,000,000. By
act of July 23, 1868, the rate of interest on the fund was re-
duced to three per cent, per annum in lawful money.3 In
consequence of the great increase of pension expenditures,
due to the Civil War, the income of the fund has been since
1870 inadequate to pay all navy pensions, and a provision of
the act of 1862, pledging the public faith to make up the
deficiency, has been brought into operation. In 1899 the
fund was about the same in amount as at the end of the
Civil War, but it will presumably be somewhat increased by
the investment of the prize money received by the Govern-
ment on account of the recent War with Spain.

In the present condition of the navy pension fund, the in-
come available for the payment of navy pensions is less than
ten per cent of the actual payments made in connection with
that branch of the service.4 This is shown by the following
statistics :

1 U. S. Statutes at Large, xiv, 515-517. These provisions were enacted to carry
out the clause of the eleventh section of the Act of July 17, 1862, directing that the
surplus income from the navy pension fund " be applied to the making of further
provision for the comfort of disabled officers, seamen and marines." The allow-
ances are in addition to pensions to which the persons concerned may be entitled
under other laws.

2 Ibid., xv, 277. 3 Ibid., xv, 170.
4 Report of Commissioner of Pensions for 1899, 105.

6O MI LI TAR Y PENSION LE GISLA TION [278

Payments for Available

Navy Pensions. income of fund.

In i89S #3,655.485 #339,535

In 1896 3,588,528 340,685

In 1897 • • • • • 3,635,802 340,275

In 1 898 3,723,932 341,275

In 1 899 3,683,794 342,275

As was previously noted, a part of the income of the navy
pension fund is used for the support of the Naval Asylum at
Philadelphia.

A privateer pension fund was inaugurated by the act of
June 26, 1812, but this was exhausted at the end of about
twenty-five years. The provisions for its establishment and
administration, however, still remain on the statute book.
The fund consisted of two per cent of the net amount of the
prize money accruing to privateers of the United States.1
Pensions were paid, under supervision of the Secretary of the
Navy, to those who were wounded and disabled on board
the private armed vessels of the United States in engage-
ments with the enemy, and also to the widows and orphans
of such as died by reason of their wounds. The fund was
managed in much the same way as the navy pension fund,
and at one time amounted to about $2OO,ooo.2 Demands
upon the fund being too great to be satisfied from the in-
come, it was gradually decreased by the sale of stocks and
finally exhausted about 1838. The few pensions paid from
it were stopped. Congress later made provisions for the re-
newal of the privateer pensions and for their payment from
the ordinary pension appropriations.

3 . War of 1812 Pensions.

In the spring of 1812, various acts for the raising of troops
included the same invalid pension provisions as had been
made for the regular army by the act of 1802. In 1816, the

1 U. S. Statutes at Large, ii, 759.

3 American State Papers, Naval Affairs, i, 666-667.

279] SERVICE BETWEEN 1789 AND i8gi fa

rate of a full pension for private soldiers was increased from
five to eight dollars per month, and there was also an increase
in the rates of pensions paid to the lower grades of commis-
sioned officers. Half pay pensions for five years were
granted to widows and orphans, but these allowances, in
course of time, expired. However, they were eventually
renewed, and, before the Civil War, pensions had been
granted for life to all surviving War of 1812 widows, whose
husbands had died as the result of wounds received or of
disability incurred in service. Pension rates for the War of
1812 were, made equal to Civil War rates by some of the
earlier pension acts passed on behalf of the latter war.

Service pensions on account of the War of 1812 were not
granted until 1871. With the lapse of time, the number of
invalid pensioners had become very small, and a lively and
long-continued agitation for service pensions finally met
with success. The Revolutionary act of 1832 was appealed
to as a precedent, and thus the predictions made by senators
in the debate on that law were fulfilled.

The act of February 14, 1871, was one of numerous bills
on the subject proposed to Congress. In the debates, the
principal feature was the discussion of a so-called " pauper
clause," requiring proof of indigence on the part of appli-
cants for pensions. This would have accorded with the
principle of the Revolutionary pension act of 1818. A ma-
jority, however, was found in favor of a simple service pen-
sion act without property qualification. There was the usual
underestimate of the number of applicants and amount of
expenditure involved.

As finally approved, the act of 1871 granted pensions to
all surviving soldiers or sailors of the War of 1812, who
served sixty days and were honorably discharged, or who
received personal mention by Congress for specific services
in the war. Applicants were required to have been loyal

62 MILITAR Y PENSION LEGISLA TION

during the Civil War and to take an oath to support the
Constitution. Pensions were also granted to the surviving
widows of those who had served as above, provided that the
widows had been married prior to the treaty of peace and
had not re- married. The rate allowed was eight dollars per
month during life, and proof was to be made under rules
prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior.1

The effect of the law of 1871 was immediately felt. At
its passage, there were few survivors of the War of 1812 on
the pension rolls. By October 13, 1871, the Commissioner
of Pensions reported that some 32,000 claims had been re-
ceived under the law, and that a new class of pensioners had
been established. Of the claims received, about 25,000
were those of survivors and 7,000 those of widows.3 The
number of widows' applications was greatly limited by the
proviso with regard to the date of marriage. Statistical
information with regard to the working of this act will be
furnished later.

Hardly had the act of 1871 become law before numerous
bills were introduced in the interest of greater liberality. A
particular effort was made to remove the restriction on
widows' pensions. The desired ends were at length attained
in the act of March 9, 1878, which received commanding
majorities in both House and Senate.3 This measure was
extravagant in its terms, opening the way to the pension roll
for widows unborn when the War of 1812 was fought, and for
soldiers who had seen only fourteen days' service. Congress
endorsed the proposition put forward in the debates that
" the affectionate ministrations of a devoted wife during the
declining years of an infirm and too often destitute and suf-
fering soldier should receive some recognition on the part of

1 U. S. Statutes at Large, xvi, 411.

1 Report of Commissioner of Pensions for 1871.

3 U. S. Statutes at Large, xx, 27.

28 1 ] SERVICE BETWEEN 1789 AND 1861 £3

the Government created and established by their (sic) valor
and services in the field." Besides shortening the necessary
length of these valorous services to a term of fourteen days,
the requirement of loyalty during the Civil War was abol-
ished.

Under the act of 1878, pensions were granted to all those
persons in any branch of the service, who served for four-
teen days in the War of 1812, or who were in any engage-
ment and were honorably discharged, and to the surviving
widows of all such persons. Pensions to all ranks v. ere at the
rate of eight dollars per month during life. It was provided
that re-marriage should terminate widows' pensions. Record
evidence of service and honorable discharge were not re-
quired, but applicants might establish their claim by any
other satisfactory testimony. Provision was made for the
restoration to the rolls of all War of 1812 pensioners who
had been removed for disloyalty during the Civil War.
Where pensioners had thus been stricken from the rolls and
had died without restoration, their widows were given the
right to make claim for a pension under the new act.

At the time of the passage of the act of 1878, claims under
the law of 1871 were nearly exhausted. The new measure
resulted in the presentation of about 25,000 claims between
March 9 and October 15, 1878, on account of a war which
had ended sixty-three years ago. Survivors presented only
about one- seventh of these claims. This condition of affairs
was in marked contrast to that under the act of 1871, when
the great majority of claims was by survivors. The change
was due to the removal of the restriction on the date of
marriage and also to the great mortality among the survivors,
who had all reached an exceedingly advanced age.1

There has been no further pension legislation on account

1 Report of Commissioner of Pensions for 1878.

64

MI LI TAR Y PENSION L E GISLA TION

of the War of 1812, although the act of March 19, 1886,
operated to raise the pensions of widows of that war to twelve
dollars per month. On June 30, 1899, there was on the
pension roll one surviving soldier of the War of 1812, aged
ninety-nine years. At the same date, there were 1998 widows
of this war on the rolls.1 Some of these widows will prob-
ably be found among the nation's pensioners considerably
more than a century after the conclusion of the war.

The operation of the War of 1812 pension laws of 1871
and 1878 is shown in the tabular statement on the opposite
page.2 It is not possible to give separate statistics regarding
this class of pensioners for the years prior to 1871. At that
date, the number of such pensioners was inconsiderable.

4. Indian War Pensions.

In the course of its history, the United States Government
has had frequent conflicts with hostile Indian tribes. Some
of these disturbances were of sufficient importance to be
termed wars. It has been uniformly the custom to extend
the benefits of existing pension laws to the soldiers of these
wars, and also to the widows and orphans of the slain. An
early law providing for those engaged in fighting hostile In-
dians was that of April 10, 1812, for the relief of the officers
and soldiers who served in General Harrison's campaign on
the Wabash. From that time down, the benefits of the
pension laws were extended from time to time to those en-
gaged in putting down Indian insurrections in Florida and
elsewhere. At the time of the Civil War, the survivors and
widows of soldiers in the various Indian wars stood on the
same footing as to pensions as those of the War of 1812.

Service pensions were not granted on account of the In-

1 Report of Commissioner of Pensions for 1899.

2 Compiled from statistics in Reports of Commissioner of Pensions.

283] SERVICE BETWEEN 1789 AND 1861

WAR OF 1812 PENSIONS SINCE 1871

No. of Pensioners on Rolls.

Expenditures.

Fiscal

Year.

Survivors.

Widows.

Total.

Survivors.

Widows.

Total.

1871

727

$2.S^ Qf

$ril QO

$0 066 CK

1872

17,100

3,027

II
20,127

*° O JJ J

1,977,415-84

•fp^ A X ,WW
335,993.63

yp^jwv/v/«w^

2,313,409.47

1873

18,266

5,°53

23,319

2,078,606.98

689,303.59

2,767,910.57

1874

17,620

5,312

22,932

1,588,832.95

6l6,Ol6.4O

2,204,849.35

1875

15,875

5,163

21,038

1,355,599-86

533,000.21

1,888,600.07

1876

14,206

4,987

19,193

1,089,037.18

445,772.95

1,534,810.13

1877

12,802

4,609

17,411

934,657.82

361,548.91

1,296,206.73

1878

10,407

3,725

14,132

768,918.47

294,572.05

1,063,490.52

1879

11,621

21,194

32,815

1,014,525.66

2,192,699.54

3,207,225.20

1880

10,138

24,75°

34,888

790,710.39

2,658,058.14

3,448,768.53

1881

8,898

26,029

34,927

621,612.80

2,381,800.95

3,003,413.75

1882

7»!34

24,661

3J,795

478,274.85

2,024,207.63

2,502,482.48

1883

4,93!

21,336

26,267

357,334.8i

1,882,542.41

2,239,877-22

1884

3,898

i9,512

23,410

278,888.85

1,686,302.09

1,965,190.94

1885

2,945

17,212

20,157

207,782.80

1,518,202.39

1,725,985.19

1886

i,539

13,397

14,936

144,389.59

1,458,896.44

1,603,286.03

1887

1,069

11,831

12,900

105,837.01

1,765,582.36

1,871,419.37

1888

806

10,787

",593

73,659.48

1,596,604.96

1,670,264.44

1889

603

9,964

10,567

52,800.27

1,397,487.09

1,450,287.36

1890

413

8,6 10

9,023

38,847-09

1,263,239.37

1,302,086.46

1891

284

7,590

7,874

22,504.64

1,040,284.41

1,062,789.05

1892

165

6,651

6,8 1 6

11,908.93

827,080.53

838,989.46

i893

86

5,425

5,5"

10,494.27

721,060.32

731,554.59

1894

45

4,447

4,492

5,312.20

645,297.46

1895

21

3,826

3,847

3,583-27

541,923.48

545^506.75

1896

H

3,287

3,30i

1,972.27

456,847.61

458,819.88

1897

7

2,810

2,817

1,440.00

388,291.95

389,73L 95

1898

3

2,407

2,410

791.06

347,070.15

347,861.21

1899

i

1,998

i,999

193-33

293,09748

293,290.81

Total.

14,018,487.72

30,363,295-5°

44,381,783.22

66

MILITARY PENSION LEG I SLA TION

[284

dian wars until the passage of the act of July 27, 1892.*
This act included in its benefits those " who served for thirty
days in the Black Hawk War, the Creek War, the Cherokee
disturbances, or the Florida War with the Seminole Indians'1
between 1832 and 1842, and were honorably discharged.
It also included such others as had been personally named
in any resolution of Congress for any specific service in said
Indian wars, even though their term of service had been less
than thirty days. The surviving widows of the above per-
sons received the benefit of the act, provided that they had
not remarried. Pensions were at the rate of eight dollars
per month during life. Service and honorable discharge
might be proved by any satisfactory evidence, and loyalty
during the rebellion was not required. The following table
gives the statistics of Indian war pensions, beginning with
the fiscal year ending June 30, 1893 :

INDIAN WAR PENSIONS SINCE 1893*

No. Pensioners on Rolls.

Expenditures.

Fiscal

Year.

Survivors.

Widows.

Total.

Survivors.

Widows.

Total.

1893

2,544

J.338

3,882

$158,076.26

$66.434.05

$224,510.31

1894
1895

3>I04
3,012

3,284
3,9*1

6,388
6,923

377,883.57
308,365.24

456,652.25
469,161.39

834,535.82
777,526.63

1896

2,718
2,373

4,237
4,288

6,955
6,66 1

268,778.30
227,580.41

468,694.44
442,082.76

737,472.74
669,663.17

1898

2,019

4,067

6,086

189,981.39

418,997.35

608,978.74

1899

1,656

3,899

5,555

165,327.01

403,871.74

569,198.75

Total.

1,695,992.18

2,725,893-98

4,421,886.16

5 . Mexican War Pensions.

The act of May 13, 1846, declared the existence of a state
of war between the Republic of Mexico and the United

1 U. S. Statutes at Largf,x\vii, 281.

* Compiled from Reports of Commissioner of Pensions.

285] SERVICE BETWEEN 1789 AND 1861 fy

States, and also authorized the President to raise volunteers
for the prosecution of the war.1 A section of the act prom-
ised to those volunteers, who should be wounded or other-
wise disabled in the service, the same benefits as were pro-
vided for regular troops. Between 1848 and 1850, a num-
ber of acts were passed granting five years' half pay to the
widows and orphans of those who had died or should die as
the result of wounds received or disease contracted in ser-
vice during the war. The act of June 3, 1858, extended the
half pay of widows for life, and that of orphans until they
reached the age of sixteen years.2 At the time of the Civil
War, pensions were granted for service in the Mexican War
on the same basis as for the War of 1812 and Indian wars.
The earlier Civil War pension laws increased the rates for
all the " old wars" to a level with those paid on account of
the Civil War.

Immediately after the passage in 1871 of the War of 1812
service pension bill, an agitation was begun in favor of a
similar measure applying to the Mexican War. The ques-
tion was long before Congress, and bills on the subject
several times passed one house or the other. Finally, a
limited service pension act became law on January 29, i88/.3
This directed the Secretary of the Interior to grant pensions
to those persons " who being duly enlisted, actually served
sixty days with the army or navy of the United States in
Mexico, or on the coasts or frontier thereof, or en route
thereto, in the war with that nation, or were actually engaged
in a battle in said war, and were honorably discharged, and
to such other officers and soldiers and sailors as may have
been personally named in any resolution of Congress for any
specific services in said war, and the surviving widows of such
officers and enlisted men."

1 U. S. Statutes at Large, ix, 9. J Ibid., xi, 309. * Ibid., xxiv, 371.

68 MILITAR Y PENSION LE GISLA T1ON [ 2 86

Widows, to be eligible for pensions, must not have re-
married. The law also requires that every person pensioned
must be either sixty-two years of age, or subject to a dis-
ability or dependency equivalent to some cause recognized
by the pension laws of the United States as a sufficient reason
for the allowance of a pension. Nor must the disability have
been incurred by the applicant while voluntarily engaged in
opposing the United States Government during the Civil
War. The rate of pensions is eight dollars per month dur-
ing life. The act does not apply to those already pensioned
at the rate of eight dollars per month or more, and, as re-
gards those receiving less than eight dollars per month, it
applies only as to the difference between the existing pen-
sion and eight dollars per month. Disloyalty during the
Civil War is not a bar to a pension, but the act does not in-
clude in its benefits any person while under the political dis-
abilities imposed by the fourteenth amendment to the Con-
stitution of the United States.

By the act of January 5, 1893, the Secretary of the Interior
was authorized to increase to twelve dollars per month,
the allowance of such Mexican War survivors then on the
rolls, as were wholly disabled for manual labor, and in such
destitute circumstances that eight dollars per month was in-
sufficient to provide them with the necessaries of life.1 At the
end of the fiscal year 1894, about 3,700 pensions had been
increased under this provision. On June 30, 1899, out °f
9,204 survivors of the Mexican War, 5,027 were pensioned
at eight dollars per month, 4,121 at twelve dollars per month,
and the small remainder at rates in excess of twelve dollars
per month. All widows were pensioned at eight dollars per
month, with the exception of a few cases provided for by
special act.2

1 U. S. Statutes at Large, xxvii, 413. J Reports of Commissioner of Pensions.

i ; I

287] SERVICE BETWEEN 1789 AND 1861 69

A tabular statement of the operation of Mexican War
pension laws since 1887 follows:

MEXICAN WAR PENSIONS SINCE 1887

No. of Pensioners on Rolls.

Expenditures.

Fiscal

Year.

Survivors.

Widows.

Total.

Survivors.

Widows.

Total.

1887

7,5°3

895

8,398

#53,148.68

#2,548.08

#55,606.76

1888

16,060

5,104

21,164

1,861,756.07

583,056.28

2,444,812.35

1889

17,065

6,206

23,271

1,796,899.30

693,57245

2,490,471.75

1890

17.158

6,764

23,922

1,728,027.54

695,054.90

2,423,082.44

1891

16,379

6,976

23.355

1,622,114.75

695,314.52

2,317,429.27

1892

1S>215

7,282

22,497

1,425,258.18

686,733.57

2,111,991.75

1893

14,149

7»369

21,518

1,396,392.38

736,173.41

2,132,565.79

1894

13461

7,686

21,147

1,388,707.07

8o3,345-9i

2,192,052.98

1895

12,586

7,868

20,454

1,433,690.86

802,032.96

2,235,723.82

1896

11,800

8,017

19,817

1,368,685.95

814,096.14

2,182,782.09

1897

10,922

8,072

18,994

1,279,188.31

818,563.78

2,097,752.09

1898

10,012

8,143

I8,i55

1,213,508.63

846,560.26

2,060,068.89

1899

9,204

8,175

i7>379

1,107,594.63

818,067.58

1,925,662.21

Total.

17,674,972.35

8,995,029.84

26,670,002.19

CHAPTER IV

CIVIL WAR PENSION LEGISLATION, 1861-1879

THE operation of the pension laws enacted on account of
our Civil War has invariably extended back to March 4,
1 86 1, the date of the inauguration of the Lincoln adminis-
tration. Hostilities began in the spring of 1861, but, when
the fiscal year ended on June 30, they had not yet resulted
in the addition of any new names to the pension roll. In
July was fought the important battle of Bull Run, and, by
November, Commissioner of Pensions Barrett reported that
claims were being rapidly filed by disabled Union soldiers,
and by the widows and orphans of the slain. In the absence
of legislation entirely adequate to the emergency, it was
some time before the effects of the war began to be felt in
any large increase in the number of pensioners.

Up to the beginning of the war, the United States Govern-
ment had expended for military pensions about $90,000,000,
and had granted 65,500,000 acres of bounty land in recog-
nition of military services. The pension list at this time
consisted of some 10,700 persons, of whom 63 were soldiers
of the Revolution, and 2,728 the widows of such soldiers.
The aggregate annual value of these pensions was $958,000,
and the actual expenditure during the fiscal year ending
June 30, 1 86 1, was $1,072,000.' Under the laws then in
force, the number of pensioners was decreasing at the rate of
five or six hundred each year. Seventy-five or eighty per-
sons were proving more than sufficient to carry on the work

1 For statistics see Report of Commissioner of Pensions, 1861.
70 [288

289] CIVIL WAR, 1861-1879 7!

of the Pension Bureau. Normally, there would have been
a gradual but constant decrease in the amount of the annual
pension payment. The Civil War checked this tendency,
and opened the way to an expenditure for military pensions
unequaled in the history of any nation.

At the opening of the war, the Bureau of Pensions soon
found it necessary to adopt a policy with regard to the treat-
ment of disloyal pensioners. An order issued before the semi-
annual payment of September 4, 1861, required the oath of
allegiance to be taken by pensioners before receiving their
stipends. The pension agencies in the disloyal States were
suspended, as were also the pensions of disaffected persons
in loyal States. On June 30, 1862, the pensions of 2,073
persons in the Southern States were reported as suspended,
and, by the end of the war, the names of all the pensioners
in the eleven Confederate States had been stricken from the
rolls. After the close of hostilities, such as were able to
prove their continued loyalty in act and sympathy through-
out the war were restored to the pension list, and also re-
ceived the arrears which had accrued since the last payment
prior to the rebellion. Since 1862, the requirement of
loyalty during the Civil War has been a fundamental prin-
ciple of our pension laws, although exceptions have been
made in the service pension acts passed on behalf of the
soldiers of the " old wars," and in certain other cases.1

On April 15, 1861, three days after the firing on Fort
Sumter, President Lincoln issued a proclamation calling out
seventy- five thousand militia, and also appointing an extra-
ordinary session of Congress to convene on July 4. At this
session, the act of July 22, 1861, was passed, authorizing the
President to accept the services of not exceeding five hun-
dred thousand volunteers.2 Among the sections of this law

1 The question of loyalty is discussed in the Reports of the Commissioner of Pen-
sions for 1 86 1, 1862, 1865 and 1866.
"' U. S. Statutes at Large, xii, 270.

7 2 MI LI TAR Y PENSION LE GISLA TION [290

was one which provided that all volunteers under its pro-
visions, who might be wounded or otherwise disabled in the
service, should be entitled to the benefits conferred on per-
sons disabled in the regular army. The widows or legal
heirs of such as should die in the service were promised the
sum of one hundred dollars, in addition to all arrears of pay
and allowances. This provision may be said to have estab-
lished at the very outset of the war the principle of invalid
pensions for disabled Union soldiers. The promise of such
pensions was without doubt an inducement offered to secure
voluntary enlistments.

The preceding provision did not apply to the soldiers
called into service by Lincoln's proclamations of April 15
and May 3, 1861. These men were engaged in the import-
ant battle of Bull Run and in minor engagements, and, by
tha fall of 1861, numerous claims on their behalf were re-
ceived by the Pension Bureau. Old laws were found on the
statute books which were deemed to warrant the allowance
of many of these claims, but the uncertainties and discrep-
ancies of existing provisions led the Commissioner of Pen-
sions to ask for the prompt enactment of explicit and detailed
legislation by Congress.1

The need of further legislation was emphasized in an
opinion of Attorney-General Bates, prepared at the request
of the Secretary of the Interior.2 For provisions respecting
invalid pensions the Attorney- General was compelled to go
back to the old laws of 1802 and 1813, which were quite in-
adequate. There was in his opinion no provision of law
whereby pensions might be conferred upon the widows and
children of such of the volunteers as might die or be killed

1 Report of Commissioner of Pensions, 1861. Message and Documents, 1861-
1862, Part i, 836.

2 House Ex. Doc., vii, 1861-1862, no. 98.

29 1 "] C/F7Z #^tf, 1861-1879 73

in the service.1 He earnestly recomended that the attention
of Congress might be called to the propriety of enacting
laws which might be easily understood, and which might
comprehend all that the emergency required.

By resolution of April I, 1862, the House of Representa-
tives requested from the Attorney-General a copy of the
preceding opinion.2 Prompt steps were taken to secure
adequate pension legislation. On April 30 " An act to grant
pensions" was introduced into the House from the Com-
mittee on Invalid Pensions.3 The measure had been pre-
pared after numerous meetings of the committee, and had
received the approval of the Commissioner of Pensions.
Speedy action was urged. Although amended in several
respects, the bill met no serious opposition in either House
or Senate, and was finally approved by the President on July
14, 1862.4

This law applied to army and navy alike, including
regulars, volunteers and militia, and also the marine
corps. It provided pensions for disability, which had been
incurred since March 4, 1861, or should thereafter be in-
curred, by reason of wounds received or disease contracted
while in the service of the United States, and in the line of
duty. The rates for total disability ranged according to
rank from thirty dollars to eight dollars per month. The
former amount was allowed to a lieutenant-colonel or officer
of a higher grade in the army or marine corps, and to a
captain, commander or officer of equal rank in the navy;

1 The Department of Interior conformed to the Attorney-General's opinion by
a decision excluding widows and orphans of deceased Union soldiers from the
benefits conferred on those classes by previous army pension laws. House Ex*
Doc., 38th Cong., 1864-1865, v, 654.

8 Cong. Globe, 2d Sess., 37th Cong., 1861-1862, 1480.

8 Ibid., Part ii, 1886.

4 U. S. Statutes at Large, xii, 566-569.

74 MILITAR Y PENSION LE GISLA TION [292

while the latter amount was granted to non-commissioned
officers and privates in the army, and to petty officers and
common sailors in the navy. Proportionate pensions were
to be allowed in each rank for partial disability. Invalid
pensions were to commence from the date of discharge in
all cases in which the application should be filed within one
year after that date. Otherwise the pension was to be paid
from the date of filing the application. In all cases the pen-
sions were to continue during the existence of the disability.

To the widow, or if there were no widow, to the child or
children under sixteen years of age, of any person dying,
after March 4, 1861, by reason of any wound received or
disease contracted, while in the service of the United States,
and in the line of duty, the act granted the same pension as
would have been allowed to the husband or father for total
disability. This pension was to commence from the death
of the husband or father, and to continue to the widow dur-
her widowhood, or to the child or children until they sever-
ally attained the age of sixteen years.

Where a deceased officer or soldier left no widow or legiti-
mate child, but a dependent mother, the mother was given
the right to receive the pension which might have been al-
lowed to a widow or child. By a re-marriage, the dependent
mother forfeited the pension received on account of her son,
nor could any mother receive at the same time more than
one pension under the provisions of the act. Where the de-
ceased soldier had left neither widow nor child nor mother,,
but an orphan sister or sisters, under sixteen years of age,
who were wholly or in part dependent upon him for support,
the pension might go to such sister or sisters until they sev-
erally attained the age of sixteen years. But the orphans
were in no case to receive more than one pension under the
law at the same time. Payment of pensions to any disloyal
relatives or heirs of a deceased soldier was specifically for-

293] CIVIL WAR, 1861-1879 75

bidden, and the right to such payment was transferred to the
loyal heirs, if there were any.

The remaining sections of the act dealt with many admin-
istrative details, and included provisions regulating attorneys'
fees, imposing penalties for frauds by agents and attorneys,
regulating the appointment and fees of examining surgeons,
and authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to appoint a
special agent to assist in the detection and prosecution of
pension frauds. The last section repealed all previous en-
actments inconsistent with the provisions of this law.

This act of 1862 was epoch making. It became the fun-
damental pension law for all claims arising out of service in
the Civil War. Extending its operation backward to March
4, 1 86 1, and forward indefinitely, it was by far the most lib-
eral measure of the kind up to that time enacted by our
Government. Two classes of dependent relatives heretofore
unknown to our legislation — mothers and orphan sisters —
were provided for, while the pensions to other classses, and
particularly to widows and orphans, and to disabled seamen,
were largely increased. Greater uniformity in the rates of
army and navy pensions was also secured. By the terms of
this law, we find the National Government, early in the war,
explicitly committed not only to a grant of pensions to dis-
abled Union soldiers, but also to a similar provision for the
dependent relatives of those who should lose their lives in
the service.

In Congress, the act of 1862 was practically unopposed,
and the exciting events of the time seem to have so en-
grossed public interest that it met with but little attention in
the country at large. We do, however, hear of "apprehen-
sions in some quarters of an extravagant, if not insupporta-
ble, annual burden resulting from the law." Commissioner
Barrett thought these unwarranted, and expressed, in No-
vember, 1862, the conviction that, "supposing the results of

76 MILITARY PENSION LEGISLATION [294

the war to be commensurate with what may reasonably be
expected from the means employed, the total annual sum re-
quired to carry out this law will in no year exceed $7,000,-
ooo." x The unexpected duration of the war rendered this
estimate entirely inadequate, as the Commissioner himself
pointed out in his report for 1864. By June 30 of that year
there were 51,135 pensioners, a much greater number than
had ever before been on the rolls. Some 47,000 pensions
had been allowed under the act of 1862, 21,000 to invalids,
and 26,000 to widows, orphans and dependent relatives.2

The history of Civil War pension legislation is one of con-
tinually increasing liberality on the part of Congress. This
tendency was early manifested in the passage of the act of
July 4, 1864, which introduced a new principle into our pen-
sion legislation — that of fixed rates for certain specific dis-
abilities.3 This system of special ratings has since had an
astonishing and almost absurd development. Rates, rang-
ing from twenty-four to one hundred dollars per month, are
now fixed by law for about twenty specific disabilities, and,
under authority conferred upon him, the Commissioner of
Pensions has fixed rates for some fifty other disabilities.
Total disability was in 1 862 understood to be inability to
perform manual labor, and the pension was eight dollars
per month. But this rate is now paid for " simple total dis-
ability," and is the same as that for stiffening (anchylosis)
of the wrist, loss of a thumb, or loss of the great and second
toes. Inability to perform manual labor is now pensioned
at thirty dollars per month.*

The following official table exhibits in a concise form all of

1 Report of Commissioner of Pensions, 1862. Message and Documents, 1862-
1863, Part ii, 580-581.
a Report of Commissioner of Pensions, 1864.
3 U. S. Statutes at Large, xiii, 387-389.
* Treatise on the Practice of the Pension Bureau, 1898, 122-125.

295] CIVIL WAR, 1861-1879 77

the rates established by law for specific disabilities from 1864
to the present:

Rates and Disabilities
Specified by Law.

£

i

s

s.

4

£

od

00
H

1

CO

•

From Mar. 3, 1883.

f
to

£

£

From Aug. 4, 1886.

i

1

f

eT

i

". | From Mar. 4, 1890.

Act of July 14,1892. ]

From July 4, i

From Mar. 3, 3

so"

1

c

D

•8

£

£

£

£

&\

Loss of both hands
Loss of sight of both eyes .

3*5

25

i

$50

5°

...

$72

...

...

$100

....

Loss of sight of one eye, the
sight of the other lost be-

Total disabilityin both hands
Regular aid and attendance

25
35

3'K

50
50

872

[*]

Periodical aid and attend-

a ix

Sir

Loss of an arm at shoulder

15

15

18

18

24
24

$30

$37^

45

-ifi

Loss of an arm at or above
elbow, or a leg at or above
knee

Loss of a leg above the knee
causing inability to wear

Loss of one hand and one

Total disabilityin one arm

18

'6

!

Total disability in one hand

-rfi

i

Total disability in both feet

20
15

&

18

Total disability in one hand

!

Incapacity to perform man-

Total deafness

Sio >

Disability equivalent to the

-5

18

* Seventy-two dollars from June 17, 1878, only where the rate was $50 under the Act of June
18, 1874, and granted prior to June 16, 1880. First grade proper is $50, amended by the Act of
March 4, 1890, which increases rate to $72.

f From date of medical examination held after July 14, 1892.

In his report for 1864, Commissioner of Pensions Barrett
commented upon the development of the pension system
under the acts of 1862 and 1864. He said:

" No other nation has provided so liberally for its disabled sol-
diers and seamen, or for the dependent relatives of the fallen. The

78 MILITARY PENSION LEGISLA TION [296

Government has undertaken to make up, to a certain specified ex-
tent, for the loss of health or members, when incurred strictly in its
military or naval service, and to furnish regular pecuniary aid to the
families of those whose lives are thus sacrificed. From this simple
impulse of justice, manifesting itself in the war of independence,
has sprung the entire system now expanding into proportions per-
haps little anticipated in those early days. In place of laws for par-
ticular emergencies, cautiously limited to retrospective action, we
have now a statute which puts on an equal footing each arm of the
service, embracing the future as well as the present in its scope, and
providing for regulars, volunteers and militia alike." !

An act of March 3, 1865, broadened the construction of
the act of 1862 in the interest of the children of deceased
officers and soldiers.2 Where a widow should die or marry
without payment to her of any part of a pension to which
she was entitled, it provided that the pension should go to
the child or children under sixteen years of age, just as in
cases where there was no widow. If the pension had been
paid to the widow, the child or children were, in case of her
death or remarriage, to succeed to the pension until they
severally attained the age of sixteen years.

The pension list continued to grow with ever increasing
rapidity. By June 30, 1866, the number of pensioners on
the rolls was 126,722, and the annual expenditure already
amounted to $13,460,000. Notwithstanding the increasing
demands upon the Treasury, the liberality of Congress con-
tinued unchecked, and two increase acts became law in
1866.

New rates for many specific disabilities were established by
the act of June 6, i866.3 These involved a substantial
addition to the annual pension expenditure. The act of

1 House Ex. Doc., 38th Cong., 1864-1865, v, 656.

1 U. S. Statutes at Large, xiii, 499-500. * Ibid., xiv, 56.

297] CIVIL WAR, 1861-1879 jg

1862 was also amended so as to grant the benefits of the
pension laws to orphan brothers under sixteen years of age
as well as to orphan sisters, and to dependent fathers as well
as mothers. This same act established regulations covering
many minor questions arising in the administration of the
pension laws.

The second of the increase acts was that of July 25, I866.1
Its main object was the relief of widows who had large fam-
ilies dependent upon them for support. Pensions of such
widows were increased at the rate of two dollars per month
for each child of the deceased soldier or sailor under the age
of sixteen years. Where there was no widow living and en-
titled to a pension, and there was more than one child, the
children were granted a pension equal in amount to that
which, under the circumstances, would have been allowed to
a widow.

The same law extended the provisions of the act of July
14, 1862, and supplementary acts to the pensions under pre-
vious laws, except Revolutionary pensions. This extension
was afterward so construed as to limit its effect merely to the
specific increase allowed to pensioners, and it was not recog-
nized as making a new class of pensioners, or as placing, in
every respect, all pensions, except Revolutionary, upon the
basis of the acts in question.2

The passage of these two laws of 1866, together with the
continued reception of original applications in numbers ex-
ceeding expectations, nearly doubled the labors of the Pen-
sion Bureau for the year ending June 30, 1867. Commis-
sioner Barrett expressed a belief that no important exten-
sion of the very liberal provisions of the pension laws would
now be contemplated by Congress. In two years, about

1 U. S. Statutes at Large, xiv, 230.

2 House Ex. Doc., 4OthCong., 1867-1868, Report of Sec1 y of Interior, \, 4-5.

80 MILITAR Y PENSION LEGISLA TION [298

18,800 pensions were increased under the act of June 6,
1866, and about 46,300 under the act of July 25, 1866.'

The next important pension law was that of July 27, 1868,
which easily passed both houses of Congress.2 In explain-
ing it to the Senate, Mr. Van Winkle said :

" The whole object of the bill is to correct certain misconstructions
in the law, supply some omissions in the law, and make other similar
corrections * * * * in order to prevent such a flood of pension
bills being thrown upon Congress as has been at this session. There
have been misconstructions of the law at the Pension Office. The
law in some cases is defective, perhaps, in a single word or two,
which is now to be supplied, or some case of parallel nature to that
mentioned in the law has not been mentioned." 3

Mr. Van Winkle asserted that the bill, as it had been acted
on, would reduce pensions on the whole, but from an ex-
amination of its provisions it is difficult to see where the
reduction came in.

During the debate in the Senate, an amendment was
offered to increase the pensions of the higher classes of army
and navy officers. Senator Sherman of Ohio said in opposi-
tion:

" It is a very ungracious task to object to a pension of any
amount to a person who has been in the military service ; but I
submit to the Senate whether it is wise now, in the present condi-
tion of the public business, at this stage of the session, the attention
of the Senate having scarcely been called to this bill, to raise the
pensions of any portion of the army or navy. At a time when we
are endeavoring to lower all the expenses of the government ; when
we have reduced all our appropriations ; when we have thrown off
$100,000,000 of taxes, and yet when taxes are still very burdensome
on our people ; when the pension fund now is $33,000,000 (?) a

1 Reports of Commissioner of Pensions, 1867 and 1868.

2 U. S. Statutes at Large, xv, 235-237.

3 Cong. Globe, 2d Sess, 4Oth Cong., 1867-1868, Part v, 4228-4230.

X/~YIVERSITT

299] CIVIL WAR, 1861-2879 8!

year — twice as much as any nation in the world ever paid before — I
ask whether it is worth while for us to increase our pension lists on
a mere amendment of a bill of this kind. I do not like to object
to anything of this sort, because I have the same feelings that other
Senators have, a feeling of kindness and commiseration for those
who have been wounded in the service of the country ; but, if this
amendment is pressed, I shall have to make opposition to it and
move the postponement of the bill. If the bill is only intended to
remove ambiguities in existing laws, as the Senator from West Vir-
ginia (Mr. Van Winkle) has stated, I have no objection, but I can-
not consent to this increase of pensions." l

The amendment was withdrawn and the bill passed.

Previous legislation had left the order of precedence of
dependent relatives in the receipt of pensions somewhat in-
definite, and declaratory legislation on the question was
needed. This was supplied by the first section of the act of
1868, which gave precedence to dependent relatives of
deceased soldiers leaving neither widow nor child " in the
following order, namely : first, mothers ; secondly, fathers ;
thirdly, orphan brothers or sisters under sixteen years of
age," who were to be pensioned jointly if there was more
than one. Where the dependent mother and father were
both living, the father was given the right to succeed to the
pension on the death of the mother. And, upon the death of
the father and mother, the dependent brothers and sisters
under sixteen years of age were given joint title to the pen-
sion until they attained the age of sixteen years, respectively ;
the pension to date from the death of the party who,
preceding them, would have been entitled to the same. No
pension already awarded was to be affected by the foregoing
provisions.

The second section of the act of 1868 was also important
as defining the conditions under which pensions would be

1 Cong. Globe, 2d Sess., 1867-1868, Part v, 4230.

8 2 MILITAR Y PENSION LE GISLA TION F 3 oo

granted for disabilities incurred in time of peace. It pro-
vided : '

"That no person shall be entitled to a pension by reason of
wounds received, or disease contracted, in the service of the United
States, subsequently to the passage of this act, unless the person who
was wounded or contracted disease was in the line of duty ; and, if
in the military service, was at the time actually in the field, or on the
march, or at some post, fort or garrison ; or, if in the naval service,
was at the time borne on the books of some ship, or other vessel of
the United States, at sea or in harbor, actually in commission, or was
on his way, by direction of competent authority, to the United States,
or to some other vessel or naval station."

Arrears of pension were allowed by section six of this
law. This provided that all pensions which had been
granted in consequence of death occurring, or disease con-
tracted, or wounds received since March 4, 1861, or which
might thereafter be granted, should commence from the
death or discharge of the person on whose account the pen-
sion had been or might be granted. In order to secure the
benefits of this arrears provision, it was required that the ap-
plication for the pension should be filed with the Commis-
sioner of Pensions within five years after the right thereto
had accrued. An exception to this limitation was made in
favor of insane persons and children under sixteen years of
age without guardians or other proper legal representatives.

This act also contained numerous sections of minor im-
portance, changing and supplementing the general pen-
sion law. Failure to claim a pension for three years was
made presumptive evidence that the pension had legally ter-
minated, subject to a right of restoration on a new applica-
tion, with evidence satisfactorily accounting for the failure to
claim the pension. Where a soldier or sailor died leaving a
widow entitled to a pension, and also a child or children
under sixteen years of age by a former wife, a pension of

30I] CIVIL WAR, i86i-i879 83

two dollars per month was provided for each of such chil-
dren, thus placing them upon the same footing as the chil-
dren of a surviving widow. Other sections dealt with many
matters not of sufficient general interest to demand attention
here, although of great importance to claimants and attor-
neys. The whole tendency of this act of 1868 was toward a
liberal construction of the pension laws.

Although several measures were introduced into Congress,
no other general pension laws were enacted for some time.
The acts of June 17 and June 30, 1870, may be noticed as
marking a further provision for the veterans of the war.1 In
these laws, Congress granted to every soldier who lost a limb
during the war, an artificial limb or apparatus once in every
five years, or, if he elected, -money commutation therefor.

There was approved on July 8, 1870, an act " to define
the duties of pension agents, to prescribe the manner of pay-
ing pensions, and for other purposes."2 This was important
from an administrative standpoint. It provided that pen-
sions should be paid quarterly instead of semi-annually, and
only to the persons entitled thereto, and not to any attorney
or claim agent acting for the pensioner. The fees of attor-
neys were also regulated. In consequence of the provision
for quarterly payment of pensions, the whole amount of
pensions accruing between March 4, 1870, and June 4, 1871,
a period of fifteen months, became due and payable within
the fiscal year ending June 30, 1871. This made the expen-
diture during the year 1871 larger by one-fifth than it would
normally have been.

Under the laws then in force, pension expenditures seemed
to have reached a maximum. The reported expenditure for
the year ending June 30, 1869, was $28,423,000; for 1870,
$27,781,000; and if payment for but four quarters had been

1U. S. Statutes at Lar%e, xvi, 153 174. '* Ibid., xvi, 193-195.

84 MILITAR Y PENSION LEGISLA TION [jO2

made in the fiscal year 1871, the amount for that year would
probably have been under $26,500,000. On February 14,
1871, the act granting service pensions on account of the
War of 1812 became law. This was the culmination of
many attempts to enact a statute of the kind, and for a time
added considerably to the annual outlay for pensions. It
has been considered under the treatment of War of 1812
pensions.

Commissioner Baker, in his report for 1871, gives some
interesting information with regard to the average pension at
that time.1 He says :

"The invalid army pension averages $8.92 per month; widows
and dependents, $12.65 ; navy invalids, $9.10 ; navy widows, $15.40.
The average pension for all classes is $10.99. As a total pension lor
a private is but $8 per month, this rating appears extraordinary and
the result was unexpected. The solution of this problem, so far as
the invalid army and navy pensions are concerned, lies in the act of
June 6, 1866, which establishes the most liberal rates for serious dis-
abilities ; and those entitled have not been slow to avail themselves
of this generous beneficence. As provided by this act there are no
less than 15,060 of the third grade ($15 per month) already on the
rolls. The high average of widows' pensions is explained by the lib-
eral provisions of the act of July 25, 1866, which grants $2 per
month additional for each child under sixteen years of age."

In the same report, the Commissioner also says :

" As we recede from the War of the Rebellion, many disabilities,
in their nature temporary, are disappearing by recuperative energies,
and the pensioner, reluctant to lose his gratuity, oftentimes tries to
fortify himself by evidence, which only consumes the time and labor
of the office to no purpose. In many of the later applications for
original pension, it is often a matter of extreme doubt whether the
disability at this distant period from the war (1871) actually had its

1 House Ex. Doc., 426. Cong., 1871-1872, Report of Sec'y of Interior, Part i,
380, 382, 385.

303] CIVIL WAR, 1861-1879 85

origin in the service, so that the line of demarcation between duty
to the Government and justice to the soldier is difficult to find."

These words are especially interesting when it is remem-
bered that at the present time original invalid pension claims
are still being allowed on account of service in the Civil War.

With the multiplication of pension laws, the urgent need
of a codification was felt. The laws were often confused, am-
biguous in expression and contrary in provisions. In 1871
Commissioner Baker recommended that all the needful pro-
visions of past legislation, cleared of what was doubtful, con-
trary or cumbersome, be codified into one act. He thought
that no additional or more liberal legislation was needed.
On March 3, 1873, "An act to revise, consolidate, and
amend the laws relating to pensions " was approved.1

This act consisted of thirty-nine sections. It has some-
times been called the " Consolidation Act," and was primarily
intended as a codification, revision and interpretation of the
numerous pension laws for which the Civil War had furnished
occasion. So many changes had been introduced into the
law from time to time, that a reduction of the whole body of
legislation to an intelligible and harmonious system, had be-
come a necessity.

However, this measure did in some respects materially
change existing laws. New rates were established for cer-
tain kinds of specific disabilities. The section regarding the
pensions of widows and children was so drawn as to increase
a large number of pensions of this class, with arrears from
July 25, 1866. In a number of cases where there was only
one surviving child, and the widow was dead or debarred
from receiving a pension, the amount of the surviving child's
pension was increased two dollars per month. That is, the
child was granted the amount to which a widow with one

1 U. S. Statutes at Large, xviii, 566 et seq.

8 6 MILITAR Y PENSION LE GISLA TION [ 3 04

child would be entitled, instead of the amount which a widow
with no child would receive. The provisions of this section
involved in many cases seven years' arrears of increase. A
further demand upon the pension appropriations was caused
by the authorization of intermediate grades between eight
and eighteen dollars for certain classes of invalid pensioners
who had been receiving the lower rate.

Everything of a permanent nature in the pension laws of
the United States, down to March 4, 1873, was included in
the Revised Statutes enacted in that year. Sections 4692 to
4791, inclusive, pertain to pensions, although many miscel-
laneous sections deal with questions arising out of the ad-
ministration of the pension laws.

Commissioner Baker, in his report for 1873, gives a very
interesting account of the condition of the widows' and de-
pendent relatives' roll at that time.1 He says :

" An annual diminution of the widows' and dependent relatives'
roll may hereafter be expected by reason of the termination of minors'
pensions (of which there were on the 3oth of June last, 34,850) on
account of the children reaching the age of sixteen years. A very
careful and interesting analysis of this roll has been made since the
close of the last fiscal year, from which it is found that of the 112,-
088 pensioners upon it, 21,862 were widows without minor children ;
29,696 were widows with children to the number of 54,451 under
sixteen years of age; 34,850 were minors' pensions, with 57,807
children receiving the benefits therefrom; 21,852 were dependent
mothers; 2,025 were dependent fathers; and 56 were pensions to
brothers and sisters of deceased soldiers."

For the first time since 1862, the pension roll on June 30,
1874, showed a decrease in numbers. This decrease con-
tinued slowly but steadily until 1879, when the remarkable
legislation of that year brought about rapid additions to the
list of pensioners. The War of 1812 pension act of 1878

1 House Ex. Doc., 43d Cong., 187 '3-1874, Report of 'Sec 'y of 'Interior, Part i, 306.

305] CIVIL WAR, 1861-1879 37

also had a similar effect. Between 1873 and 1879, several
acts were passed making decided increases in the rates for
specific disabilities. In spite of these laws, the expenditure
for pensions, as well as the number of pensioners, declined
during that period, with the exception of a slight increase
in 1877. The Arrears of Pensions Act of January 25, 1879,
and the supplementary provisions contained in the arrears
appropriation act of March 3, 1879, marked a new era in
the history of pension legislation. The next chapter will
open with a study of this Arrears Act.

CHAPTER V

CIVIL WAR PENSION LEGISLATION, ARREARS ACT TO 1890

To understand clearly the Arrears Act of 1879, it is
necessary to review previous provisions with regard to the
commencement of pensions granted on account of service in
the Civil War. The act of July 14, 1862, provided that in-
valid pensions should commence from the date of discharge
in all cases in which the application should be filed within
one year after that date ; otherwise the pension was to com-
mence from the date of filing the application. Pensions to
widows and dependent relatives were to commence, without
limitation as to the date of application, from the death of
the soldier on whose account the pension in question was
granted. Further provisions regarding the commencement
of pensions were made in 1864 and 1866, and the whole
matter was left in a state neither clear nor satisfactory.
Without going into confusing details, it is enough to point
out that under the existing provisions there was great danger
of unjust discrimination between claims of equal merit.

The act of July 27, 1868, granted arrears and made a fresh
start. Section six of this law provided that all pensions
which had been granted, in consequence of death occurring,
or disease contracted, or wounds received since March 4,
1 86 1, or which might thereafter be granted, should com-
mence from the discharge or death of the person on whose
account the pension had been or might be granted. In order
to secure the benefits of this provision, it was required that
applications for pensions should be filed with the Commis-
88 [306

307] ARREARS ACT TO 1890 89

sioner of Pensions within five years after the right thereto
had accrued, but applications by or in behalf of insane per-
sons and children under sixteen years of age might be filed
after the expiration of the five years, if previously they were
without guardians or other legal representatives.

The above law involved the payment of considerable ar-
rears, but it served to establish a definite basis for the com-
mencement of pensions. This same provision was substan-
tially incorporated in the important Consolidation Act of
March 3, 1873, which provided that pensions should com-
mence from the death or discharge of the person on whose
account the claim had been or should thereafter be granted,
or from the termination of the right of the party having prior
title to the pension, provided that the application had been
or should be filed within five years after the right to pension
had accrued. Otherwise the pension was to commence from
the date of filing the last evidence necessary to establish the
claim. This five years' limitation was subsequently embodied
in the Revised Statutes, and remained in force until the pas-
sage of the Arrears Act.

It would seem that a period of five years after his dis-
charge afforded to the soldier sufficient opportunity to dis-
cover whether or not he was suffering from any disability,
and, in case he was disabled, to file an application for a
pension. Where he did not file an application within five
years, there seems to be presumptive evidence that, from his
own standpoint, he either did not deserve or did not need a
pension. If later he applied for a pension, it is hard to see
any sound reason for paying him arrears from the date of
his discharge from the army. Certainly, the most that could
with any show of justice be asked is that the pension should
date from the time of filing the application. And this has
not proved in practice a faultless rule, for it has given op-
portunity for the resurrection of worthless claims, which

90 MILI7 *AR Y PENSION LEGISLA TION [j og

have long been dormant, and for the completion of the evi-
dence by fraudulent means in order to obtain large sums
of arrears. The safest rule, which may of course work hard-
ship in some cases, is to date the pension from the comple-
tion of the last evidence necessary to establish the claim.

Early in the seventies, the number of pensioners and the
expenditures for their payment showed signs of having
reached a maximum under existing laws. For a time, any
marked tendency towards a decrease was checked, largely
by the passage of the act of February 14, 1871, granting
service pensions on account of the War of 1812. But, as
has been noted, in the fiscal year 1874 the pension list
decreased in numbers from the previous year for the first
time since 1862. This decrease continued until 1879, when
the War of 1812 pension act of 1878, and the Arrears Act,
reversed the process. Likewise the annual pension expendi-
ture decreased from $30,594,000 in 1874 to $26,844,000 in
1878. Beginning as early as 1869 and 1870, there was also
a notable falling off in the number of original claims pre-
sented on account of service in the Civil War. The number
of original claims filed under the general law — practically all
Civil War claims — was 24,851 in 1870, 18,154 in 1871, 16,030
in 1872, 15,523 in 1873, and 15, 284 in 1874.' During 1871 and
1872, the claim agents were kept busy pressing claims under
the War of 1812 pension act of 1871. After these were dis-
posed of, the agents displayed greater activity in stimulating
new Civil War claims. As a consequence, there was a con-
siderable increase in the number of new claims presented in
the years from 1875 to 1878. But, with all their efforts, the
agents found original applications more and more difficult to
secure, and to prevent the loss of their lucrative business be-
gan an aggressive agitation for new legislation.

The increased activities of the pension attorneys received

1 Compiled from the Report of the Commissioner of Pensions for 1898.

209] ARREARS ACT TO 1890 91

considerable attention in the report of Commissioner of Pen-
sions Bentley for the year 1878.* He said that the country
was being continually advertised and drummed from one end
to the other by claim agents in pursuit of persons who had
honest claims, or of those who were willing, in consideration
of the fact that it would cost them nothing unless they won
their pensions, to file claims which had no merit, leaving it
to the ingenuity and cupidity of their agents to " work " the
cases through. The Commissioner also called attention to
the fact that professional claim agents and claim firms at
Washington and other points were advertising their business
by " employing for that purpose in some instances sheets is-
sued in the form of periodical newspapers purporting to be
published iti the interest of the soldiers, the columns of
which contained matter in which apparent anxiety for the
soldiers' welfare and appeals to their love of gain were cun-
ningly intermingled." These sheets always represented the
advertisers as in the enjoyment of special and peculiar facil-
ities for the successful prosecution of claims, and usually
added the suggestion that no charge would be made unless
a pension should be obtained.

All of this agitation and advertisement had its effect in
producing a demand for pensions throughout the country.
Congress received numerous petitions for arrears and addi-
tional legislation. An act granting arrears was introduced
in the 44th Congress, but the proposal was killed in com-
mittee. In the 45th Congress, the Arrears Act, which finally
became a law, was introduced by Mr. Cummings, of Iowa,
on April 2, 1878. The bill was referred to the Committee
on Invalid Pensions, and ordered printed.2 On June 19,
under a suspension of the rules, and, without any discussion
whatever, the Committee on Invalid Pensions was discharged

1 House Ex. Doc., 1878-1879, ix, 813-837.

3 Cong. Record, 2d Sess., 45th Cong., 1878, vii, Part iii, 2217.

92 MILITAR Y PENSION LE GISLA TION [3 l Q

from further consideration of this measure, and it was passed
with an amendment providing that no claim agent or other
person should be entitled to receive any compensation for
services in making application for arrears in pensions. The
vote on the bill was yeas, 164; nays, 61 ; not voting, 65.'
In the House, the political majority was Democratic. The
bill was sent to the Senate, where it was referred to the Com-
mittee on Pensions and not reported at this session.2

Upon a superficial observation, the amendment, forbidding
claim agents to receive compensation for services in making
application for arrears, may seem to have deprived them of
all pecuniary interest in the passage of the measure.
Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the
amendment served as a cunning blind, and gave to the bill
the appearance of being wholly for the benefit of the soldiers
and their dependent relatives. The great point of import-
ance in this legislation was not that it granted millions of
arrears on claims already allowed, but that it granted on all
original claims, which might thereafter be allowed, arrears
dating from the time of death or discharge. Here was a
premium of about one thousand dollars placed upon the es-
tablishment of each new claim, and this premium growing
in amount year by year. It needed no unusual keenness to
perceive that this extraordinary stimulus would enable the
claim agents to bring upon the Pension Bureau a flood of
original claims from all parts of the country. Upon such
claims the agents were at that time legally entitled to col-
lect a fee not greater than ten dollars, without taking into
consideration such sums as they might obtain by their com-
mon evasions and violations of the law.3 This whole aspect
of the Arrears Act was utterly ignored in Congress.

1 Cong. Record, 2d Sess., 45th Cong., 1878, vii, Part v, 4874-4875.

f Ibid., Part v, 4865.

8 The prohibition of compensation to agents for service in making application

3n] ARREARS ACT TO 1890 93

With the arrears measure passed in the House and await-
ing the consideration of the Senate at the next session, its
advocates devoted the intervening time to the circulation of
petitions and to the continuance of their agitation. The
Grand Army of the Republic was not yet the efficient organ
in the pursuit of pensions which it has since become. Or-
ganized in 1866, its motives were for some years entirely
praiseworthy. It sought to perpetuate old friendships and
memories, and provide for the mutual support and assistance
of the comrades of the war. Such recommendations as it
made to Congress in behalf of the old soldiers were quite
beyond criticism. It was not until after 1880 that the or-
ganization began to serve as a mighty machine for the pros-
ecution of the claims of the soldiers of the Civil War upon
the National Treasury. However, at the annual encamp-
ment in 1878, General John C. Robinson, Commander-in-
Chief, called attention, in his address, to the introduction of
the Arrears Act in Congress, He said that he had been
struck with the justice of the measure, and that he had
immediately brought it to the attention of the department
commanders, hoping that action by the several department
encampments might have an important bearing on its suc-
cess. At the next annual encampment, General Robinson
was able to report that the Arrears Bill had become law.1

At the third session of the 45th Congress, the movement
for arrears was strongly felt in the Senate. Several bills on
the subject were introduced, and from all sections of the
country came numerous petitions in favor of the measure

for arrears should be received with considerable allowance. It can hardly be
thought that the average claimant, who had just received, through the efforts of an
agent, from several hundred to a thousand dollars of arrears in a lump sum, would
make any objection to paying the agent under some pretext or subterfuge an ade-
quate and sometimes exorbitant fee.

1 See article on " The Grand Army as a Pension Agency," forum, xv, 527.

94 MILITAR Y PENSION LE GISLA TION [3 £ 2

which had passed the House at the second session. One
memorial from an association of pensioners included a for-
mer estimate made by the Pension Bureau of the probable
amount which would be necessary to pay arrears to January
I, 1876. Basing their figures on this report, the memorial-
ists urged that fifteen millions of dollars would suffice to
meet the arrears provided by the House bill. They referred
to the fact that six State Legislatures had recommended the
passage of the bill, " while numerous organizations have
made similar recommendations, and petitions of over two
hundred thousand citizens to the same effect have been filed
in Congress." The passage of the Arrears Act was urged
" in behalf of honesty, equity, justice and morality, and in
upholding and maintaining the national faith which has been
pledged to the payment of this just debt."1

On January 16, 1879, the House arrears bill was taken up
in the Senate and considered. The debate on the matter
was most inadequate. Senator Ingalls, who was in charge
of the bill, thought that from eighteen to twenty million dol-
lars would be required to pay arrears on claims already al-
lowed, but admitted that these estimates were very largely
in the nature of surmises. The important questions of the
cost of arrears on pension claims yet to be allowed, and of
the effect of the measure in stimulating new applications,
were entirely dodged. In fact, the advocates of the Arrears
Act seem to have given the impression, whether intention-
ally or not, that the bill would take only some twenty
million dollars from the Treasury. They resolutely opposed
any amendment, and the measure was passed as it came from
the House by yeas, 44 ; nays, 4; absent, 28.2 Having been
adopted by overwhelming majorities in both the Democratic
House and the Republican Senate, the bill went to the Pres-

1 Cong. Record, 1878-1879, viii, Part i, 373. * Ibid., Part i, 484-494.

*U \nSRSlTT

3! 3] ARREARS ACT TO 1890 95

ident for his approval. Already serious misgivings, as to its
probable effects, were being expressed by Secretary of the
Interior Schurz and Secretary of the Treasury Sherman, but
even they had no adequate conception of the vast expendi-
tures to be required. The pressure for the act was great,
and it received the signature of President Hayes on January
25, I879.1

The Arrears Act, in substance, provided that all pensions
which had been granted under the general laws regulating
pensions, or which should thereafter be granted, in conse-
quence of death from a cause which originated in the United
States service during the Civil War, or in consequence of
wounds, injuries, or disease received or contracted in that
service, should commence from the date of the death or
discharge of the person on whose account the pension had
been or should thereafter be granted, or from the termina-
tion of the right of the party having prior title to the pension.
The rate of pension for the intervening time for which arrears
were allowed was to be the same per month as that for which
the pension was originally granted. Rules and regulations
were to be adopted by the Commissioner of Pensions for the
payment of arrears to each pensioner entitled, or, if the pen-
sioner should have died, to the person or persons entitled to
the same. A requirement of record evidence from the War
or Navy Department in cases not prosecuted to a successful
issue within five years was repealed. As previously men-
tioned, the act forbade claim agents to receive compensation
for services in making application for arrears of pension.
All conflicting acts or parts of acts were repealed.

Soon after the passage of the Arrears Act, new claims
began to be presented at the Pension Bureau with unex-
ampled rapidity. Secretary Schurz thought the existing

1 U. S. Statutes at Lar%e, xx, 265.

96 MILITAR Y PENSION LE GISLA TION [3 j 4

system of adjudication utterly inadequate to handle them
with justice to the pensioner and proper safeguards to the
Government. On February 4, 1879, the Commissioner of
Pensions estimated that $34,000,000 would be required to
pay the arrears on claims which had been allowed prior to
January 25, 1879; $2,500,000 for arrears upon claims al-
lowed and to be allowed between January 25 and June 30,
1879, and $5,000,000 to pay arrears upon claims which
would be allowed in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880.'
Adopting this estimate, the Secretary of the Treasury recom-
mended to Congress that bonds be sold to meet a prospective
deficit in the national budget for the year i88o.2 However,
in making the above report and estimate, the Commissioner
of Pensions called attention to some manifest defects in the
loosely drawn Arrears Act, and recommended to Congress
some changes and explanatory provisions. If these recom-
mendations were adopted, he thought the arrears on claims
allowed prior to January 25, 1879, could be reduced to
$25,000,000, and that the amount of arrears to be paid on
claims allowed after that date would be materially lessened.
In the meantime, he delayed the final adjustment of all pend-
ing claims.

The Commissioner also called the attention of Congress to
the extraordinary facilities for the successful prosecution of
fraudulent and unmeritorious claims afforded by the existing
ex parte system of evidence. He asked Congress for relief
along the lines recommended in previous reports, and said :

" As the law stood previous to the passage of the Arrears Act the
temptation to fraud was very great, but since that act it is many
times increased. Then the claims were comparatively few in which
any considerable sum of money would be the immediate reward of
a successfully prosecuted claim, but since that act every invalid claim

1 House Ex. Doc., 3d Sess., 45th Con., 1878-1879, xvi, no. 75.
a Ibid., Document no. 85.

315] ARREARS ACT TO 1890 gy

allowed, as well as many of the other classes, will have in it from sev-
eral hundred to several thousand dollars due the claimant at the first
payment.

" It is estimated by those best informed that there have been not
less than $2,000,000 paid out annually for fraudulent pensions. In
my judgment, the estimate is below, rather than above, the actual
amount.

" With the temptation to the commission of fraud so greatly in-
creased, and the road to the Treasury easy through ex parte pro-
ceedings, the consequences can easily be foretold. Not only will
the people be taxed to pay an annual tribute to the unworthy
amounting to several millions of dollars, but with so many claims
pending, and still to be presented, and the avenues to the two or
three hundred persons, more or less, who are charged with their ad-
justment, open for the approach of interested parties, it will be little
less than a miracle if extensive official corruption does not follow."

Later in the same session of Congress at which the Ar-
rears Act was passed, a bill making appropriations for ar-
rears was introduced into the House, and passed without
much consideration.1 It carried an appropriation of $25,-
000,000 for the arrears due on pensions which had been al-
lowed prior to January 25, 1879, and an appropriation of
$1,800,000 for arrears on claims to be allowed between
January 25, 1879, and June 30, the end of the fiscal year.
In the Senate, this bill and proposed amendments were the
occasion of a considerable discussion.2 Several of these
amendments were very important, and were accepted by the
House. They embodied in part suggestions made by the
Commissioner of Pensions.3

1 Cong. Record, 1878-1879, viii, Part ii, 1487-1488.

2 Ibid., 1878-1879, viii, Part iii, 1980, 1981-1984, 2033-2040, 2042-2051, 2052-
2058, 2223-2243.

3 One amendment, proposed in the Senate, was designed to change the system of
adjudication of pension claims in accordance with the recommendation of the
Secretary of the Interior and the Commissioner of Pensions. It contemplated

98 MILITAR Y PENSION LEGISLA TION [3 1 £

It is interesting in this debate to find that the Senate
had awakened to some idea of the great cost of the Arrears
Act. It was freely alleged that Senator Ingalls and the
other advocates of the arrears bill had given the impression
that " the amount to be taken out of the Treasury by the
arrears of pensions bill could not exceed $20,000,000 at the
outside." Senator Thurman, of Ohio, said :

" The very next thing after the passage of the bill that I heard
was that the Commissioner of Pensions required $4,000,000 for the
present fiscal year, and thirty odd millions for the next fiscal year,
and there is no telling where it is to end ; and we are told in some
quarters that it will take fifty, some say sixty, and some say one hun-
dred millions out of the Treasury. I must say that, if that is so,
there was a grievous error somewhere, a grievous mistake some-
where when the arrears of pensions bill was considered."

Senators Conkling and Ingalls had a sharp dispute as to
whether Mr. Ingalls had misled the Senate at the time of the
passage of the Arrears Act. Conkling had the better of the
argument, for whether Ingalls meant to mislead the Senate
or not, his words on the occasion in question were well calcu-
lated to do so.

While refusing to authorize the sale of bonds to pay the
arrears, the Senate was willing to add to this appropriation
bill an innocent little " rider " providing, " That the law

the division of the country into not to exceed sixty districts for the purposes of
pension administration. At various points in each of these districts, a commission,
consisting of an experienced surgeon and a legal clerk, was to sit and personally
examine claimants and witnesses, thus doing away with the ex parte system of
testimony. The testimony was to be forwarded to the Commissioner of Pensions,
for the adjustment and settlement of claims. The scheme was designed to pre-
vent frauds which were variously estimated to amount to from ten to twenty per
cent, of the pension list. It was bitterly opposed by the clique of Washington
pension attorneys, who imputed partisan motives to its advocates. Some of the
senators thought the measure capable of abuse to secure the soldiers' votes. The
amendment was rejected.

3! 7] ARREARS ACT TO 1890 gg

granting pensions to the soldiers and their widows of the
War of 1 8 12, approved March 9, 1878, is hereby made ap-
plicable in all its provisions to the soldiers and sailors who
served in the War with Mexico of 1846." The bill was
passed with this amendment, which received absolutely no
consideration. A motion to reconsider was entered by
Senator Windom. Some days later, when he pointed out
that " the little proposition so good-naturedly introduced by
the Senator from Missouri and so good-naturedly supported
by a majority of the Senate the other evening would take
from thirty to forty millions out of the Treasury," the vote
by which the bill passed was reconsidered. The amendment
was struck out after a debate in which the old question of
loyalty and disloyalty during the Civil War came up, and
considerable partisan acrimony was shown. One is tempted
to believe that some of the Senators who had voted for the
" rider" were glad of the opportunity to plead as an excuse
for changing their votes the fact that the provision would
have the pernicious effect of pensioning Jefferson Davis and
other ex-Confederates. After being passed again, the bill
was sent to the House with a number of Senate amendments
which were concurred in. It was approved on March 3,
1879.'

The Senate amendments provided that the rate, at which
the arrears of invalid pensions should be allowed and com-
puted, should be graded according to the degree of the pen-
sioner's disability from time to time, and the provisions of
pension law in force over the period for which arrears were
granted. In no case was a pension to be allowed and paid
from a time prior to the date of actual disability. It was
also provided that arrears of pension should be granted only
where the application for the pension had been or should
thereafter be filed with the Commissioner of Pensions prior to

1 U. S. Statutes at Large, xx, 469.

MILITAR Y PENSION LE GISLA TIOAT [ 3 x g

the first day of July, eighteen hundred and eighty ; other-
wise the pension was to commence from the date of fil-
ing the application. This limitation did not apply to claims
by or in behalf of insane persons and children under sixteen
years of age. The introduction of such a limitation is most
important, although it is directly contrary to the principle
on which the Arrears Act was passed. The advocates of the
act had urged that the interposition of any statute of limita-
tion against the full satisfaction of the claims of the ex-
soldiers was a despicable defense on the part of the National
Government. They sought to place the Government in the
position of a debtor avoiding a just settlement with creditors
holding claims of a most sacred nature. Nevertheless, it was
the introduction of a limitation that saved the arrears mon-
strosity from being utterly unendurable. Expensive and
harmful as the amended measure was, there was a prospect
of some end to the drains upon the National Treasury. Left
in its original form, the premium upon the successful prose-
cution of a pension claim would have grown greater with the
lapse of each year. Claims might be presented today
and allowed with arrears dating back to the Civil War.
Under such a law, who could estimate the inducement to
fraud, or count the cost? It was well that Congress pro-
vided some bar against the enormous demands which were
impending on the Treasury.

In his report for the year ending June 30, 1879, the Com-
missioner of Pensions spoke of the pressure upon his office
which the Arrears Act was causing.1 He said :

"Since the act of January 25, 1879, commonly known as the Ar-
rears Act, the new claims of invalids, widows, minor children and
dependent relatives have come in at an unprecedented rate, the in-
valids at a rate more than double that ever before known in the his-

1 House Ex. Doc., zd Sess., 46th Cong., 1879-1880, Report of the Secretary of
Interior, ii, 282.

ARREARS ACT TO 1890 lOI

tory of the office, except in the year 1866, and within a few hundred
of double the rate of that year, which, it will be noted, was the year
following the disbandment of the armies, when all the sick and dis-
abled soldiers became at once entitled to apply for pension, while
the rate of the receipt of widows', children's, and dependent rela-
tives' claims is greater than that of any year since 1867, and more
than twice the rate of any year since 1871.

Added to this inflow of new business is the pressure of all the
older claims for an early settlement, which was great and constantly
increasing before the passage of the Arrears Act, but since its pass-
age overwhelms the office with repeated demands of claimants for
the adjustment of their claims, and altogether the current work of
the office is greatly increased and has been thrown so far in ar-
rears that there are many and very serious complaints at the delays
in answering the inquiries relative to pending claims."

The Commissioner again pointed out the wretched in-
efficiency of the ex parte system of adjudicating claims.

"Besides being cumbersome and expensive," said he, "the present
system is an open door to the Treasury for the perpetration of fraud.
The affidavits in support oi the claims have the same appearance to
the officers of the Bureau, whether true or false. * * * There
is another aspect of the ex parte system which should receive the
most earnest consideration on the part of the Government, and that
is its fruitfulness of crime against the laws, in the nature of perjury,
forgery and false personation."

This was the claim agents' harvest time. A thousand dol-
lars or more at the first payment was a strong incentive to
the presentation of new claims. In the months of the fiscal
year 1879, during which the Arrears Act was in operation,
such claims were filed many times as fast as during the first
half of the same year. The full effect of the Arrears Act
in the stimulation of original claims was not felt until the
fiscal year ending June 30, 1880. During that year the total
number of original claims filed for invalids, widows and de-
pendent relatives on account of services in the Civil War

102 MILITARY PENSION LEGISLA TION [320

was 138,195. The number of such claims filed in 1878 was
26,304, and in 1879, 47,416. In the single month of June,
1880, just before the limitation upon the allowance of arrears
went into effect, there were 44,532 original Civil War claims
filed. This was nearly as many as in the whole fiscal year
1879. The total disbursements for pensions were, in the
fiscal year 1880, $57,240,000 as compared with $26,844,000
in 1878, and $33,780,000 in 1879.'

In the years 1881 and 1882, it became apparent that the
arrears of pensions on claims allowed prior to January 25,
1879, would reach nearly $25,000,000, the amount estimated
by Commissioner Bentley just after the passage of the Ar-
rears Act. It also became clear that the great cost of the
measure would result from a feature entirely ignored upon
its original passage, that is, the granting of arrears upon
each claim allowed after January 25, 1879, (provided, by
the amendment of March 3, 1879, that such claims were
filed before January I, 1880). This feature gave the great-
est incentive to extraordinary efforts for the establishment of
new claims by fair means or foul.

The average first payment, in 1 88 1, to an army invalid
was $953.62 ; to army widows, minor children and dependent
relatives $1,021.51; to navy invalids, $771.42; to navy
widows, minor children and dependent relatives, $790.22.
Provided that claims were originally filed within the pre-
scribed time, delay in the completion of proof simply in-
creased the allowance in prospect at the first payment, and
the prize grew greater as the years passed by. The system
put a premium upon fraud, the method of adjudication facil-
itated fraud, and there is no doubt in the mind of the writer
that fraud was an element in the establishment of many
claims under the Arrears Act.

1 The statistics in this chapter are compiled from the annual Reports of the
Commissioner of Pensions for the years in questions.

32 I ] ARREARS ACT TO 1890 103

Besides the great total which the first payments reached
annually, the ordinary payments for an indefinite series of
years were increased to an extent which would have been
impossible but for the unnatural stimulus to the presenta-
tion of claims. The cost of the Arrears Act in this respect
is enormous, but cannot be calculated. It is not possible to
estimate accurately the number of claims which would have
been filed if the act had not been passed. Statistics have
shown us, however, that the increase in the number of
claims which followed its passage was immediate and un-
precedented.

Under date of January 25, 1886, General J. C. Black,
Commissioner of Pensions, estimated that, up to June 30,
1885, the aggregate of arrears paid under the act of 1879
was $179,400,000. This leaves out of consideration the cost
to the Government resulting from the extraordinary stimulus
afforded by the Arrears Act, to the presentation of new
claims. In its national platform of 1884, the Republican
party pledged itself to the repeal of the limitation contained
in the Arrears Act. In 1890, it was officially estimated
that the cost of a repeal of that limitation would be $471,-
000,000. x The pledge has not been fulfilled. While, from
the nature of the problem, the exact cost of the Arrears Act
cannot be ascertained, we have indisputable evidence that
it has reached hundreds of millions of dollars. Thus, at the
expense of the nation, has been demonstrated the mon-
strous character of this measure, passed under the assump-
tion that it would take about twenty millions from the
Treasury.

The following table is valuable in the study of the effects
of the Arrears Act.2 It shows the amounts of disburse-

1 Senate Reports, 5ist Cong., ist Sess., vii, no. 989, 25-26.

2 From Statistical Abstract of United States for 1899, 422. The total disburse-
ments differ slightly from revised figures given in recent reports of the Commis-
sioner of Pensions,

IO4

MILITARY PENSION LEGISLATION

[322

ments for pensions for first and subsequent payments from
1877 to 1899 inclusive.

Year ending
June 30.

First payments.

Pensions exclusive of
first payments.

Total
disbursements.

1877 .

Dollars.

3284 O77 12

Dollars.

Dollars.

1878

,^o^.,yj/.i^

^4^°J/J/4UOU

^o,^ou, I5/.U4

1870. .

•',yy-',>55^.17

23o35»439"93

^0,044,415,10

1880

»/",}» /:>C>''-HJ

12 468 JQI 2O

27»725'979"9°

33,75°,52°.I9

1881. ..

44oD°,°u^.y^

?fi A cS /»nS T/I

i/>^4u>i4u«14

.^,0^0,170.01

^0,450,490.14

50,626,538.5 ^

1883

2O QO6 7 C 1 QA

^7,4«jo,jyu.u5

54,290,200.54

1884..

^y,ywu,/^j.y4

79 ^iS'' T ?fi fS

uu,4J1,y7^.°5

•*.5»41.5»015.1U

3^,00^,1^0.50

fi 6 6

1886

37, 7,375.9

/• o

1887

•"»I.37»O54.1D

41,021,591.49

64,5°4,27°.45

•7/1 Sic / 8fi Sc

1888

4o,juo,5yi.oi
c6 c68 8^ T ?8

74,015,400.05

1880..

21 AA2 1AQ I 7

79,040,140.^7

1800...

78 721 866 O7

66 806 71/1 7C

1 06 4Q7> 890 IQ

1801 . .

78 726 808 /i T

1892

AC T IA 167 68

Iloo4o,y57'7*

I A I 086 O^l8 8/1

1801. .

l&QA. .

33»75°»549«3°

1.^,90,3,917.70

I5°»I55»342.5I

^95

1 1 ACI 1 11 OI

14u,77-:,loj.7o

1807. .

11,289,278.48

126,925,483.46

139,280,078.15

^^J/D,0"1^^

l^7,o74»11D.y5

1 jy,y4y»7i7.o5

1809

1jOT"i,:71T-.uJ
Q 2A.T QC7 7C

I2Q IO7 OOC 2O

I 78 7C C OC2 QC

y»-"f/,yD/./3

MOODDr-'D^.iO

In the above table, attention should be given to the re-
markable increase in the amounts of first payments during
the years following the passage of the Arrears Act. A very
large part of such first payments consisted of arrears. In
the year 1883, the first payments amounted to about half of
the total disbursements. The abnormal expenditure in
1880 for pensions, exclusive of first payments, was probably
due to the payment of arrears to those persons already on
the rolls. It should also be remembered that the total pen-
sion expenditures had been slowly decreasing for several
years prior to the passage of the Arrears Act. After 1879,

323] ARREARS ACJ TO 1890 IC>5

the increase was very marked. Other legislation is respon-
sible for a large part of the expenditure in first payments
after 1889.

Between 1879 and 1890, a number of laws were enacted
increasing the rate of pension for certain specific disabilities,
providing for the removal of the charge of desertion in many
classes of cases, and also providing for special examinations,
medical examinations and other details in the administration
of the pension laws. The Mexican War pension act of 1887
has been previously discussed.

The increase act of March 19, 1886, provided that the
pensions of all widows, minor children and dependent rela-
tives already on the pension rolls, or who might thereafter
be placed upon the pension rolls, should be increased from
eight to twelve dollars per month.1 Nothing in the act was
to affect the existing allowance of two dollars per month for
each child under the age of sixteen years. It was further
provided that the law should apply only to widows who
were married to the deceased soldier or sailor prior to its
passage, and to those who might thereafter marry prior to, or
during the service of the soldier or sailor. Claim agents
were not to be recognized in the adjudication of claims
under the act. This increase of forty-eight dollars a year
affected some 95,000 cases on the rolls, besides claims
allowed after the passage of the act.

In a pension appropriation act of June 7, 1888, the follow-
ing provision was included : " That all pensions which have
been, or which may hereafter be, granted under the general
laws regulating pensions to widows in consequence of death
occurring from a cause which originated in the service since
the fourth day of March, eighteen hundred and sixty-one,
shall commence from the date of death of the husband."2

1 U. S. Statutes at Large, xxiy, 5. * Ibid., xxv, 173.

1 06 MILITAR Y PENSION LEGISLA TION [324

This was a repeal of the limitation on the operation of the
Arrears Act in so far as widows were concerned, making
that act apply to them indefinitely. It involved large pay-
ments of arrears in cases already on the rolls, as well as in
cases thereafter taken up.

The thoroughly harmful character of this law is set forth
at length in the report of Commissioner of Pensions Evans
for 1 899.* It enables widows, who have failed to apply for
a pension during widowhood and afterwards re-married, to
receive in a lump sum pension for the full period of widow-
hood. This amount is frequently used for the benefit of the
husband, who has had no connection whatever with the
United States military service.

In his report for 1898, Commissioner Evans illustrates the
operation of the act in the case of the widow of a captain of
volunteer infantry. The Commissioner says :

"In 1871 this captain died. He was not a pensioner, and never
had filed a claim for pension. His widow remained a widow until
March 30, 1887, when she re-married, having filed no claim, and,
having re-married, had no pensionable status. In 1893, five years
after the act of June 7, 1 888, had passed, six years after her re-mar-
riage, and twenty-two years after the death of her soldier husband,
she files her claim for pension as a widow, from the date of the
death of her soldier husband, in 1871, to the date of her re-marriage
in 1887 — sixteen years — and gets nearly $4,000, practically for the
use and benefit of the second husband."

The first payments of several thousand dollars afford in-
centive for unscrupulous persons to perpetrate frauds upon
the Government. Commissioner Evans says :

" The records of national cemeteries have been brought into use
for the purpose of determining the names and service of those
buried there. Women are then hunted up who are induced to exe-
cute applications for pension on account of the service and death

1 See pages 21 and 22 in pamphlet report.

2 2 5 1 ARREARS ACT TO 1890 ! 07

of these soldiers. These women become pliant tools in the hands
of the operators. A prima facie case is made out by means of
"stock witnesses," and the originator of the fraud pockets the
amount of the first payment, leaving the fraudulent claimant to reap
the benefit of the future payments. Great difficulty is often exper-
ienced by this Bureau in disproving a marriage or marriage relations
alleged to have occurred thirty or forty years ago."

This law, like the original Arrears Act, puts a premium
on crime. Under the existing ex parte system of adjudica-
tion, the Government has no adequate means of detecting
fraud. The way is open for perjury and forgery, and thou-
sands of dollars are put within reach of the successful crimi-
nal. Occasionally the crime is detected, and the Govern-
ment is shown to have lost large sums of money. But in
many other cases fraud goes undetected, and the Treasury
is looted.

CHAPTER VI

CIVIL WAR PENSION LEGISLATION, DEPENDENT PENSION ACT

TO 1899.

THE passage of the Arrears Act, instead of satisfying the
pension attorneys and claimants, resulted in a demand for
further legislation. Adapting to his purpose a phrase from
classical English, one of the speakers in the Congressional
debates remarked that " this appetite for pensions doth in-
crease by what it feeds on." The voting strength of the
veterans of the Civil War was so great that both political
parties feared to oppose pension measures.

President Cleveland, in his annual message of 1886, said:

"Every patriotic heart responds to a tender consideration for
those who, having served their country long and well, are reduced
to destitution and dependence, not as an incident of their service,
but with advancing age or through sickness or misfortune. We are
all tempted by the contemplation of such a condition to supply relief,
and are often impatient of the limitations of public duty. Yielding
to no one in the desire to indulge this feeling of consideration, I
cannot rid myself of the conviction that if these ex-soldiers are to be
relieved, they and their cause are entitled to the benefit of an enact-
ment under which relief may be claimed as a right, and that such
relief should be granted under the sanction of law, not in evasion of
it ; nor should such worthy objects of care, all equally entitled, be
remitted to the unequal operation of sympathy, or the tender mercies
of social and political influence with their unjust discriminations."

This declaration was taken in Congress to commit the
President to the approval of a limited service pension bill
i 08 [326

Of TKB

327] DEPENDENT ACT TO 1899

for the veterans of the Civil War. Accordingly, the so-called
Dependent Pension Bill was passed, which granted a pension
of twelve dollars per month to all persons who had served
three months in any war in which the United States had
been engaged, had been honorably discharged, and were
" suffering from mental or physical disability, not the result
of their own vicious habits or gross carelessness, which " in-
capacitated " them for the performance of labor in such a
degree as to render them unable to earn a support," such
persons being dependent upon their daily labor for support.
The cost of this measure was estimated in the House at less
than $6,000,000 per annum, which was ridiculously small
and based more on surmise than anything else.

President Cleveland performed a public service by vetoing
the bill.1 He called attention to the fact that it was the first
law passed by Congress granting pensions to the soldiers and
sailors of the Civil War upon the ground of service and
present disability alone, and in the absence of any injuries
received in the military service. The language of the law
he thought uncertain, liable to conflicting constructions, and
subject to unjust and mischievous application. The law failed
to provide for any grading of the pension, and President
Cleveland argued that a lack, in any degree, of ability to earn
a support would under its terms entitle an applicant to re-
ceive the full twelve dollars per month. This would make
the cost of the act very many times what had been estimated.

The veto message is so valuable as to justify an extended
quotation. After setting forth his interpretation of the meas-
ure, the President said :

" Believing this to be the proper interpretation of the bill, I can-
not but remember that the soldiers of our Civil War, in their pay and
bounty, received such compensation for military service as has never
been received by soldiers before, since mankind first went to war ;

1 House Ex. Doc., 49th Cong., ad Sess., no. 158.

MILITARY PENSION LEGISLA TION

["328

that never before, on behalf of any soldiery, have so many and such
generous laws been passed to relieve against the incidents of war ;
that statutes have been passed giving them a preference in all public
employments ; that the really needy and homeless Union soldiers of
the Rebellion have been, to a large extent, provided for at soldiers'
homes, instituted and supported by the Government, where they are
maintained together, free from the sense of degradation which at-
taches to the usual support of charity ; and that never before in the
history of the country has it been proposed to render Government
aid towards the support of any of its soldiers based alone upon a
military service so recent, and where age and circumstances ap-
peared so little to demand such aid.

" Hitherto such relief has been granted to surviving soldiers few
in number, venerable in age, after a long lapse of time since their
military service, and as a parting benefaction tendered by a grateful
people.

" I cannot believe that the vast, peaceful army of Union soldiers,
who, having contentedly resumed their places in the ordinary avoca-
tions of life, cherish as sacred the memory of patriotic service, or who,
having been disabled by the casualties of war, justly regard the pres-
ent pension roll, on which appear their names, as a roll of honor, de-
sire at this time and in the present exigency, to be confounded with
those who, through such a bill as this, are willing to be objects of
simple charity and to gain a place upon the pension roll through
alleged dependence.

" Recent personal observation and experience constrain me to re-
fer to another result which will inevitably follow the passage of this
bill. It is sad, but nevertheless true, that already in the matter of
procuring pensions there exists a widespread disregard of truth and
good faith stimulated by those who as agents undertake to establish
claims for pensions, heedlessly entered upon by the expectant bene-
ficiary, and encouraged or at least not condemned by those unwill-
ing to obstruct a neighbor's plans.

" In the execution of this proposed law under any interpretation,
a wide field of inquiry would be opened for the establishment of
facts largely within the knowledge of the claimants alone ; and there
can be no doubt that the race after the pensions offered by this bill,

329] DEPENDENT ACT TO 1899 1 1 1

would not only stimulate weakness and pretended incapacity for
labor, but put a further premium on dishonesty and mendacity."

Referring to the underestimates of the costs of the bill,
the President said :

" If none should be pensioned under this bill except those utterly
unable to work, I am satisfied that the cost stated in the estimate re-
ferred to would be many times multiplied, and with a constant in-
crease from year to year ; and, if those partially unable to earn their
support should be admitted to the privileges of this bill, the proba-
ble increase of expense would be almost appalling."

In reconciling his attitude towards the proposed law with
the expression of opinion previously quoted from his annual
message, he continued :

"I do not think that the objects, the conditions and the limita-
tions thus suggested are contained in the bill under consideration.

" I adhere to the sentiments thus heretofore expressed. But the
evil threatened by this bill is in my opinion such, that, charged with
a great responsibility in behalf of the people, I cannot do otherwise
than to bring to the consideration of this measure my best efforts of
thought and judgment, and preform my constitutional duty in
relation thereto, regardless of all consequences, except such as
appear to me to be related to the best and highest interests of the
country."

This courageous veto evoked a storm of criticism from
those interested in the passage of the Dependent Pension
Bill. Petitions were received from Grand Army of the Re-
public posts, other organizations and citizens all over the
country asking for the passage of the measure over the
President's veto. In Congress, he was freely charged with
inconsistency by speakers from both parties. Mr. McKinley
of Ohio was among those who spoke in favor of passing the
bill over the veto. The Pension Committee of the House,
where the measure originated, unanimously recommended

1 1 2 MILITAR V PENSION LE GISLA TION P 3 3 o

such action.1 On the vote, the yeas numbered 175 and the
nays 125. Thus the bill failed, two- thirds not supporting
it.

There was no cessation of the agitation for service pen-
sions, and the attitude of the political parties on this ques-
tion had an important influence upon the Presidential cam-
paign of 1888. The Republican national platform adopted
at Chicago on June 21, 1888, said:

"The gratitude of the nation to the defenders of the Union can
not be measured by laws. The legislation of Congress should con-
form to the pledge made by a loyal people, and be so enlarged and
extended as to provide against the possibility that any man who hon-
orably wore the Federal uniform should become an inmate of an
almshouse or dependent upon private charity. In the presence of
an overflowing Treasury, it would be a public scandal to do less for
those whose valorous service preserved the Government. We de-
nounce the hostile spirit shown by President Cleveland in his numer-
ous vetoes of measures for pension relief, and the action of the
Democratic House of Representatives in refusing even a considera-
tion of general pension legislation."

At the twenty-second national encampment of the Grand
Army of the Republic at Columbus, Ohio, September, 1888,
the following resolutions were passed:2

" i. Resolved, That it is the sense of this encampment that the
time has come when the soldiers and sailors of the war for the pre-
servation of the Union should receive the substantial and merited
recognition of the Government by granting them service pensions in
accordance with established usage ; and, further

2. Resolved, That this encampment favors the presentation of a
bill to Congress which will give to every soldier, sailor and marine
who served in the army or navy of the United States between

1 Congressional Record, xviii, Part ii, 1970-1973. For debates on this bill, see
the heading " pensions" in the index to this volume.

* Journal of the National Encampment of G. A. £., 1888, 190.

3 3 1 ] DEPENDENT A CT TO 1899 1 1 3

April, 1 86 1, and July, 1865, f°r tne period of sixty days or more,
a service pension of eight dollars per month, and to all who served
a period exceeding eight hundred days, an additional amount of
one cent per day for each day's service exceeding that period."

In the fall campaign of 1888, the pension question was
very influential in determining the result in the doubtful
State of Indiana, and consequently in the contest for the
Presidency. The Republican candidate for Governor of In-
diana was General A. P. Hovey, President of the Service
Pension Association of the United States. He was elected,
and the State was carried for Harrison.

The new Republican administration was soon called upon
to redeem its pledges to the ex-soldiers. On February 7,
1890, Mr. McKinley of Ohio presented to the House of
Representatives an appeal of A. P. Hovey, president of the
Service Pension Association of the United States, and the
resolutions of the Grand Army posts of forty States and four
Territories, for the passage of a service pension bill, as re-
commended by the Grand Army of the Republic at Columbus
in 1888 and at Milwaukee in 1889.* Several bills were in-
troduced with the object of gratifying the demand for pen-
sions. The Republican leaders wished to satisfy the ex-
soldiers without going to the extreme of general service
pension legislation to which the party was really committed.
Democrats charged the Republicans with breach of faith, and
also taunted them with their refusal to remove the limitation
on arrears as promised in the platform of 1884. The debates
were conducted very largely with reference to their effect on
the soldier vote. Each party attempted to pose as the
special friend of the soldier.

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed
bills, that of the Senate resembling the Dependent Pension

1 Congressional Record, 5istCong., 1st Sess., 1061-1066.

1 1 4 Ml LI TAR Y PENSION LE GISLA TION [332

Bill which had been vetoed by President Cleveland.1 Con-
ference committees from' the Houses finally agreed upon a
measure, more nearly resembling the Senate bill, which was
passed and received the approval of President Harrison on
June 27, 1 890.* Like the former measure which failed, this
has been known as the Dependent Pension Law. The cost
of the law, as it passed, was estimated in the House at not
to exceed $35,000,000 per annum, and, in the Senate, at not
to exceed $41,000,000 per annum. Senator Gorman, who
opposed the bill, estimated that its annual cost would be
from $56,000,000 to $79,000,000.

The first section of the act of June 27, 1890, is not con-
nected with the principal object of the law. It provides that
in the presentation of the pension claims of dependent par-
ents, where the deceased soldier has left no widow or minor
children, it shall be necessary only to show by competent
and sufficient evidence that the parent or parents are with-
out other present means of support than their own manual
labor or the contribution of others not legally bound for
their support.

Section 2 provides :

" That all persons who served ninety days or more in the military
or naval service of the United States during the late war of the re-
bellion and who have been honorably discharged therefrom, and who
are now or who may hereafter be suffering from a mental or physical
disability of a permanent character, not the result of their own vicious
habits, which incapacitates them from the performance of manual
labor in such a degree as to render them unable to earn a support,
shall, upon making due proof of the fact according to such rules and
regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may provide, be placed
upon the list of invalid pensioners of the United States, and be en-
titled to receive a pension not exceeding twelve dollars per month, and
not less than six dollars per month, proportioned to the degree of

1 House Bill, 8297, and Senate BUI, 389. • U. S. Statutes at Large.

333] DEPENDENT ACT TO 1899 n$

inability to earn a support ; and such pension shall commence from
the date of the filing of the application in the Pension Office after
the passage of this act, upon proof that the disability then existed,
and shall continue during the existence of the same."

Persons pensioned under the general laws are permitted to
apply under this act, and pensioners under this act may apply
under the general laws. But no person may receive more
than one pension for the same period.

Widows of those who served ninety days during the Civil
War and were honorably discharged, are, under the act of
1890, granted pensions at the rate of eight dollars per
month without proving the soldier's death to be the result of
his army service. As under the general law, an additional
allowance of two dollars per month is made for each child
of the deceased soldier under the age of sixteen years. The
widow, to be pensioned, must have married the soldier prior
to the passage of the act and must be dependent upon her
daily labor for support. She loses the pension if she re-
marries. In case of her death or remarriage, the pension is
paid to any surviving children of the soldier until they reach
the age of sixteen. When a minor child is insane, idiotic or
otherwise permanently helpless, the pension continues dur-
ing life or during the period of disability. Attorney's fees
under the law are limited to ten dollars.

This act of June 27, 1890, is the most important pension
law ever enacted. Up to June 30, 1899, it had cost the
country about $500,000,000, and over sixty million dollars
is being paid out annually. It is a limited service pension
bill. In the case of soldiers, the requirement is three
months' service and a certain degree of permanent disability,
not the result of vicious habits. Widows' pensions are based
upon the above length of service by their husbands and their
own dependence upon daily labor for support. Thus, we
have, in fact, two independent systems of pension legislation,

1 1 6 MI LI TAR Y PENSION LE GISLA TION [334

that under the general invalid pension law and that under
the act of 1890.* Under the former, 333,192 invalids and
107,149 widows are pensioned; under the latter, 420,912 in-
valids and 130,266 widows. It seems surprising that under
this one act 110,000 more persons should be pensioned than
under all other laws taken together.

The rates allowed by the general law are higher than
those allowed by the act of 1890. As a consequence, it has
been the general practice of applicants to file two claims,
one under each system of law. The pension under the act
of 1890 is more easily obtained, but surrendered if sufficient
proof can be brought forward to secure the higher rate al-
lowed by the general law. The latter requires proof that
disability or death resulted directly from causes incurred in
the military service.

In the execution of the act of 1890, there has never been
any inquiry into the capacity of the claimant to earn a sup-
\ port. The rich have been pensioned alike with the poor.
All that has been required of the claimant is proof that he
served ninety days in the Union army, and adequate medical
evidence that he has a physical or mental disability that dis-
qualifies him in whole or in part for earning a support by
manual labor. No matter what may be the cause of the dis-
ability, provided that it is not the result of the claimant's
vicious habits. Let us illustrate. Suppose a business man,
lawyer or physician to suffer an injury in a railroad accident,
necessitating the amputation of a foot. If he served ninety
days in the Civil War, he will be allowed upon application a
pension of twelve dollars per month for life. In case of an
injury of less severity, the rate might be anywhere from six
to twelve dollars. Is a law which grants pensions under

1For comparison of the two systems, see Report of the Commissioner of Pen-
sions for 1899, 33.

335] DEPENDENT A CT TO i8gg \ \ y

such circumstances sound in principle? The individual in
the illustration may be enjoying a large income, his earning
ability may be but temporarily impaired, his injury has no
connection whatever with military service, and, in fact, he
may never have seen active service. Nevertheless, he is
pensioned for life at the expense of the taxpayers of the
country. And this is not an extreme case. Our supposed
claimant has a clear legal title to a pension, which he can
prove without departing in the least from strict honesty of
statement. But, in that large class of cases where disability
is not physically apparent, there is abundant reason to be- ^
lieve that large numbers of persons, seemingly in normal <
health, have discovered in themselves ailments which would f
have passed unnoticed but for the pension laws.

The act of 1890 seems to the writer a bad law. It is loose
in expression, unsound in principle, and often absurd in ap-
plication. It lays an extravagant and unjust burden upon
taxpayers to insure a privileged class against serious acci-
dent or disability. It stimulates dishonesty and dependence,
fails to discriminate between the deserving and the undeserv-
ing, and prevents the pension list from being, as it should be,
a roll of honor. This act was passed at a time when there
was a large annual surplus in the Treasury. It was argued
that the payment of more pensions to ex- soldiers would be
a proper use of this surplus. The additional expenditure
involved in the execution of this law has, however, come to
be one of the causes of the deficit of recent years. Our ex-
travagant pension expenditures are beginning to attract pub-
lic attention and to arouse protest. The cost of the law of
1890 is shown in the following table : T

1 Tablet are compiled from Reports of the Commissioner of Pensions.

MILITARY PENSION LEG I SLA T10N
COST OF ACT OF JUNE 27, 1890

[336

Year
ending
June
30.

1891.
1892.
1893.
1894.
1895.
1896-
1897.
1898.
1899-

Army Pensions.

Navy Pensions.

Totals.

Invalids.

Widows and
others.

Invalids.

Widows and
others.

$7,471,926.82
42,498,340.54
52,849,007.52
43,666,091.58
44,830,630.62
43,707,246.39
44,953,265.81
48,267,959.49
47,345»58346

$972,829.29
7,177,175.65
13,129,148.15
12,271,792.94
12,011,524.49
•12,501,371.65
14,510,046.32
15,644,124.34
14,607,685.51

$340,180.83

1,719,602.64
1,396,059.20
1,647,596.78
1,550,416.31
1,560,856.51
1,679,262.23
1,699,548.75

$122,699.83
385,724.65
561,778.87
566,229.82
612,583.40

638,929.37
662,563.68
664,324.61
668,643.05

$8,907,636.77
51,407,971.32
68,259,537.18
57.900,173.54
59,102,335.29

6i',686^32.32
66,255,670.67
64,321,460.77

Totals.

375.590,052.23| 102,825,698.34

12,940,253.73

4,883,477-28

496,239,481.58

Since the passage of the act of 1890, there has been an
almost constant decrease in the number of claims allowed
under the general law. A very large proportion of all claims
now admitted comes under the law of 1890. This is shown
in the following table :

ORIGINAL PENSION CLAIMS ALLOWED BY FISCAL YEARS

Year ending
June 30.

Old Wars and
Army Nurses.'

General Law.

Act of
June 27, 1890.

Total Original
Claims Allowed.

i Son

i c84

6c OCT.

66.67.7

804

C7,2QIJ

102,387

156,486

igo2

I OI4

2[J,l63

107,870

224,047

4.8qi:

I7,C27

99,208

121,630

3,80 c

10,354

24,836

39,085

T QQ c

j 701

0,042

28./1/J2

79,181;

!gg6

1,277

7,776

31,36!

40,374

964

8338

40,799

50,101

lg<jg

821

8^80

47,747

52,648

I, OI7*

c,47c

30,621;

37,077

1 Includes Mexican War and War of 1812 pensions, and, since 1893, Indian War pension*, and
pensions to army nurses.

9 Includes 303 pensions granted on account of the War with Spain.

337J DEPENDENT ACT TO 1899 x 19

By the act of August 5, 1892, all women employed by the
Surgeon-General of the army as nurses during the Civil War
for a period of six months or more, and who were honorably
relieved from such service, are granted a pension of twelve
dollars a month, provided they are unable to earn a support.1
At present there are about 650 of these nurses on the roll.

The Supreme Court of the United States has held that no
pensioner can claim a vested legal right to his pension, but
that pensions are the bounties of the Government, which
Congress has the right to give or recall, increase or dimin-
ish, at its discretion.2 The Pension Bureau has also exer-
cised the power of revising or reconsidering its decisions for
the correction of error or illegality. In the act of December
21, 1893, Congress modified the prevailing practice by de-
claring a pension a vested right in the grantee to the extent
that payment thereof may not be suspended or withheld
without notice to the pensioner of not less than thirty days.
Such notice must contain a full statement of any charges or
allegations upon which it is sought to modify or change the
decision granting the pension, and the Commissioner must
act only after hearing all the evidence presented. This pro-
vision has facilitated frauds upon the Pension Bureau in some
cases where the fraud was discovered just after a certificate
carrying a large amount of arrears had been issued. Com-
missioner Lochren cites, in his report for 1894, a case where
the Government lost $2,200 in this manner, and says that
numerous cases of the same kind occur in the practice of
the Bureau.

A proviso in the pension appropriation act of March 2,
1895, increased to six dollars per month all invalid pensions
below that rate, and provided that thereafter, whenever any
applicant for pension would be entitled, under the then ex-
isting rates, to less than six dollars for one or for several

1 U. S. Statutes at Large, xxvii, 348. * 107 U. S. Reports, 64, 68.

120 MILITARY PENSION LEGISLATION [338

combined disabilities, he should receive not less than six
dollars per month.1 This is now the minimum invalid rate
paid.

There was also included in the pension appropriation act
of March 6, 1896, the following noteworthy clause:2

"That whenever a claim for pension under the act of June 27,
1890, has been, or shall hereafter be, rejected, suspended or dis-
missed, and a new application shall have been, or shall hereafter be,
filed, and a pension has been, or shall hereafter be, allowed in such
claim, such pension shall date from the time of filing the first ap-
plication, provided the evidence in the case shall show a pensionable
disability to have existed, or to exist, at the time of filing such first
application, anything in any law or ruling of the Department to the
contrary notwithstanding."

This provision opened the way for applications for arrears
on the part of those whose original claims had failed. Ap-
plications were renewed and fortified with additional evi-
dence in the hope of securing a large first payment. It is
gratifying to note that there has been a large percentage of
rejections of claims under this clause.

The last important general law which we shall note is that
of March 3, 1899.3 This provides that a pensioner who has
deserted his wife, or children under sixteen years of age, for
a period of over six months, or who is an inmate of a Sol-
diers' Home, must give up one-half of his pension to his
wife, she being a woman of good moral character and in
necessitous circumstances, or to the guardian of his child or
children. In this way the Pension Bureau is enabled to
afford relief in many worthy cases upon appeal from the
wives and children concerned.

The same act also provides that, in the future, no pension
shall be granted to a widow under the laws of the United

1 U. S. Statutes at Large, xxviii, 704. * Ibid., xxix, 45. * Ibid., xxx, 1379.

339] DEPENDENT ACT TO 1899 121

States unless the marriage of the widow to the soldier on ac-
count of whose service the pension is asked, was duly and
legally contracted prior to the passage of the act, or unless
she shall have lived and cohabited with the soldier continu-
ously from the date of the marriage until the date of his
death, or unless the marriage shall take place hereafter and
prior to or during the military service of the soldier on ac-
count of whose service pension is claimed. This proviso
does not apply to the widows of soldiers who served in the
War with Spain. It is intended to stop the common abuse
found in the marriage of young women to aged soldiers for '
the sake of acquiring a pensionable status.

So liberal and comprehensive is our system of general
pension laws that no additional legislation has been necessary
on account of the war with Spain. Soldiers of that war are
entitled to pensions for disabilities of a permanent character,
resulting from their military service, at the same rates as al-
lowed soldiers of the Civil War. Existing legislation like-
wise provides for the widows and dependent relatives of those
who died in service in the war with Spain or as the result
of injuries received or disease contracted in that war. Except
as to dependent parents, the act of June 27, 1890, is appli-
cable only to the soldiers of the Civil War. Up to June 30,
1899, there had been filed in the Pension Bureau 17,560
claims on account of the war with Spain, 303 of which had
been allowed. The filing of such claims is proceeding
rapidly, and the number received from some regiments
which saw no active service is surprisingly large.

Special Pension Legislation

In closing this account of general pension legislation, it
seems desirable to call attention briefly to the great develop-
ment of special pension legislation since the Civil War.v
Previous to that war, few special acts were passed, but since

122

MILITARY PENSION LEGISLATION

[340

its close their number has become great, as is shown by the
following table : x

SPECIAL PENSION ACTS PASSED BY EACH CONGRESS FROM MARCH 4, 1861, TO
MARCH 4, 1899.

Congress.

Number
passed.

Congress.

Number
passed.

Thirty-seventh (1861-63) . . .
Thirty-eighth (1863 60

12

Forty-eighth (1883-85)
Forty-ninth (1885 87)

598
856

Thirty-ninth (1865 67). ...

1 18

Fiftieth (1887 89)

0D"
1 OI5

Fortieth (1867-69)

1 j°

27C

Fifty-first (1889 91)

1,788

Forty-first (1869 71)

•*/D

8s

Fifty-second (1891—93) ....

217

Forty-second ( 1871 73) ....

l67

IIQ

Forty-third (1877 75)

l82

Plfty- fourth (1895-97)

378

Forty- fourth ( 1 875—77) •

08

Fifty- fifth (1897 99)

604.

Forty-fifth (1877 79)

2 -JQ

Forty-sixth (1870 8O

06

Total

6 7QI

Forty-seventh (1881-83)

yu

216

N\ These special acts are usually passed to allow claims which
have been rejected by the Pension Bureau, often because
they are absolutely without merit. Some of the claims are
meritorious, but do not come technically within the provi-
sions of the general law. It is the practice of both Houses
of Congress to set aside portions of certain days for the con-
sideration of pension bills. At those sessions, special laws
are put through the form of passage with remarkable speed,
and commonly in the absence of a quorum. Very few mem-
bers vote or give any attention to the bills, which are en-
acted by common consent. Occasionally, some member
does insist upon the presence of a quorum. This reckless
method of doing business, originating at a time when the
surplus in%ie Treasury seemed capable of satisfying every
demand for pensions, has resulted in the allowance of many
unworthy claims.

1CompUed from Reports of the Commissioner of Pensions for 1898 and 1899.

34 1 ] DEPENDENT ACT TO 1899 123

President Cleveland endeavored to put a stop to the abuse
of special acts by the use of his veto power.1 In his first v
term, he vetoed 228 pension bills. Grant was the only other
President who had used the veto for this purpose, he having
vetoed five unimportant pension measures. Among the
bills which Cleveland vetoed was the Dependent Pension
Bill, which we have already discussed. His action was very
severely criticised in Congress and throughout the country,
and it was said by his opponents to be an improper use of
the veto power. It had the desirable result of bringing the
special act abuse prominently before the people and thereby
checking the recklessness of Congress. The President ve-
toed only those measures which he considered improper after
a careful examination into the facts had been made by the
Pension Bureau. In a number of cases, he was able to show
that Congress had been imposed upon by deserters, by those
whose injuries had not been received in the line of duty, and
by persons whose claims were tainted with fraud. His reso-
lute stand was instrumental in bringing about more careful
methods in the committees of Congress. Claims are not /
now considered by Congress until they have been first sub-
mitted to the Bureau.

Congress is not the proper place for the settlement of
private pension claims. The pressure of general business is
too great. There is no time for the detailed discussion of
such matters on the floor of either House, and the decision
of committees must necessarily be accepted without question
in order that business may be done. These committees are
not so well fitted to investigate the merit of the claims as the
Pension Bureau. It would be an improvement upon present
methods if Congress should pass special bills only upon re-

an excellent discussion of Cleveland's pension vetoes, see Mason, The
Veto Power, 87-93.

1 24 MILITAR Y PENSION LE GISLA TION [ 3 42

commendation from the Bureau. Under our present liberal
system, it is probable that there are but few meritorious
claims not within the scope of the laws. The Pension Bu-
reau can not be accused of bias against claimants, and could
do more than is now done to place proper safeguards upon
the Treasury.

CHAPTER VII

CONCLUSION: A CRITICISM OF PENSION LEGISLATION
/. The Trend of Pension Legislation

IN this country, pension legislation has tended constantly
toward increased liberality. Our earliest laws were disabil-
ity provisions, carefully restricted in their operation and
meager in their allowances. The scope of these laws was
soon broadened, provision was made for widows and
orphans, and rates were increased. In 1818, thirty-five
years after the termination of the Revolutionary War, ser-
vice pensions were granted to the indigent soldiers of that
war, despite warnings in Congress that a precedent was
being created which posterity would regret. We have read
of the resulting scandals and fraud. Fourteen years later, a
surplus in the Treasury, due to a high tariff on imports,
opened the way for a further grant to the survivors of the
Revolutionary War. The act of 1832,3 pure service pen-
sion law, was passed. Again were there surprising disclos-
ures of fraud. The precedent for service pensions, however,
was strengthened.

The intervention of the Civil War troubles prevented the
granting of service pensions to the survivors of the War of
1812 at as early a date as would otherwise have been prob-
able. But in 1871, precedent was appealed to and a service
pension bill passed for their benefit. This was supplemented
by the extremely liberal act of 1878. The effects of these
two measures have been presented in a previous chapter,
but both effects and measures were overshadowed by Civil
343J I25

126 MILITARY PENSION LEGISLATION [344

War legislation. In 1887, a limited service pension law was
passed for the survivors of the Mexican War, and, in 1892, a
pure service pension law for the soldiers of sundry Indian
wars.

\At the beginning of the Civil War, the act of 1862 was
passed, making broader provisions for invalids, widows and
dependent relatives than had before been known in this
country. No sooner had the war ended than Congress
began passing more and more liberal provisions for invalids
and dependent relatives, and establishing higher rates for the
severer disabilities. Then came the Arrears Act with an
outlay of hundreds of millions of dollars. This was followed
by an agitation for service pensions. But to pay service
pensions without limitation to the vast armies of volunteers
who were enlisted in the Civil War was so stupendous an
undertaking that Congress dared not go to the full length of
the proposals urged upon its members. The act of 1890
was the costly compromise. The present enterprises of the
Government have of late afforded full use for all the funds in
the Treasury, but if it shall be our fortune to have another
period of Treasury surplus, we may expect a demand for
pure service pensions for all survivors of the Civil War.

2. Our Present System of Pension Laws

The pension legislation on the statute books with refer-
ence to the wars prior to 1861 is now of slight importance.
There is great need of a thorough revision and codification
of the numerous laws passed with reference to service sub-
sequent to March 4, 1861, and of the confused mass of rul-
ings and decisions thereunder. These laws comprise in reality
; two systems, that under the so-called general law and that
under the act of June 27, 1890. Under the former, there are
fewer pensioners, but this great body of legislation, dealing
with disability and death resulting from service, applies in-

345] CONCLUSION: A CRITICISM

definitely to the future as well as to the past. It includes
within its scope the war with Spain, the war in the Philip-
pines and such other wars as may be in store for us.
Among its beneficiaries are disabled soldiers, widows, or-
phan children, dependent fathers and mothers, and orphan
brothers and sisters. For the severer disabilities, it allows
rates of pension reaching as high as one hundred dollars a
month for the loss of both hands. No other body of laws
has ever provided so generously for those disabled in military
service and for the relatives of those whose death was due to
such service.

The law of June 27, 1890, which pensions the soldiers of
the Civil War and their widows in cases where disabilities
and death are not due to military service, embraces within
its scope more pensioners than are enrolled under all our
other laws taken together. A counterpart of this act of
1890 cannot be found in the legislation of any nation, and,
indeed, no measure nearly resembling it. For reasons
already discussed at length, it seems to the writer to be the
most vulnerable point in our pension system.

j. Causes and Evils of Unwise Legislation

The existence of a large surplus in the Treasury has been,
in the history of this country, a frequent temptation to ex-
travagant and mischievous pension legislation. This was
seen in the case of the Revolutionary pension act of 1832,
and has been more strikingly illustrated in the course of
legislation since the Civil War. After the country recovered
from the abnormal conditions incident to that great conflict,
a high protective tariff caused the accumulation in the
Treasury of millions of money, not needed to meet the ordi-
nary expenses of Government. This surplus opened the way
for unnecessary and harmful expenditures.

One of the most obvious ways to put these millions in cir-

1 2 8 MILITAR Y PENSION LEG I SLA TION

culation among the people was to pay them out in the form
of military pensions. Proposals to make such payments
were, in general, well received, because of the prevailing
good-will toward the citizen soldiers who had fought for the
preservation of the Union. At first, steps were taken to
broaden the provisions and increase the benefits of the laws
granting pensions to invalids, widows and dependent rela-
tives. Then, when applications and expenditures for pen-
sions began to decrease, the pension attorneys and claim
agents sought means to continue their business at the ex-
pense of the people of the United States. Under pretense
of a demand for just and honorable treatment of the dis-
abled soldiers, they urged the passage of the Arrears Act.
Among the great mass of the soldiers, there was little real
sentiment for such a measure. This being the case, the
claim agents, by means of a cunningly conducted agitation,
proceeded to stir up the needed support. They flooded the
country with artfully worded appeals, calculated to persuade
the honest veteran that he had a just claim and to arouse
the cupidity of his less honest comrade. The movement
was successful, and we have seen what it cost the country.

Notwithstanding the passage of the Arrears Act, the in-
come of the Government continued to be greatly in excess
of its expenditures. The ex-soldiers, organized in the
Grand Army of the Republic, began systematic efforts to
obtain from Congress additional pension legislation. In
these efforts, they were largely under the guidance of pen-
sion attorneys among their number. The organized soldier
vote became of such political importance as to command the
consideration of both great parties and to become one of the
determining factors in a Presidential campaign. Demands
were made that the surplus should be used in paying ser-
vice pensions on account of the Civil War. Both parties in
Congress feared to antagonize the Grand Army, but also

347] CONCLUSION: A CRITICISM I2Q

feared to enact the extreme measures which were proposed.
The act of June 27, 1890, was, in a sense, a compromise,
though we can scarcely call it a happy one. Through their
organization, the soldiers secured many other measures of
importance, notably the increase act of 1886, the repeal of
the limitation in the Arrears Act, so far as concerns widows'

P

pensions, and the establishment of the minimum invalid rate
of six dollars per month.

The evils resulting from our pension system have been
many. Unwise laws have lowered the standards of morality
and patriotism held by the volunteer soldiers. Frauds of all
sorts have been perpetrated in the preparation of evidence
and prosecution of claims. In a great number of cases,
while there has not been conscious fraud, claimants have
allowed themselves to be persuaded of the existence of dis-
abilities which never would have been discovered except at
the suggestion of pension attorneys. Others, in independent
or affluent circumstances, have been willing to receive pay-
ments on account of disabilities in no way connected with
military service. Youth has been joined in wedlock to old
age for the sake of the widow's allowance. In the eager
rush for pensions, the finer feelings of veterans have been
blunted and the attempt has been made to secure a monetary
equivalent for the performance of patriotic duty. The in-
vestigator must, at times, turn from the record in disgust.
A former soldier, who is a present officer of the Pension
Bureau, writes:1

" The rapid increase in the number of widows' pensions tells the
story of the passing of the volunteer. It must be left to history to
record his virtues. To this generation he has been so persistent in
asserting his rights, and so insistent upon recognition, so easily
gulled by self-seeking politicians, and misrepresented. by such a host
of blatant orators, that his detractors may be pardoned for regarding
him as a greedy cormorant."

1G. C. Kniffin, The Independent, November 10, 1898, 1333.

1 3 o MILITAR Y PENSION LE CIS LA TION [348

Much evidence of the financial evils of our pension system
has been presented in preceding chapters. Unjust burdens
-/have been placed upon the taxpayers of the country to carry
\ into effect the lavish grants made by Congress. With the
assumption by the government of the United States of new
responsibilities in this and other continents, the weight of
national taxation is being felt more than in former years.
We have not of late been troubled with the problem of the
surplus. Pension expenditures are becoming a matter of
public concern. The prospect of an enlarged military estab-
lishment has intensified interest in the question. It seems
probable, too, that, with the decrease in the voting strength
of the Grand Army, proposals of pension legislation may be
examined in Congress with respect less to party advantage
than to public duty.

^. A Proper System of Laws

Laws granting pensions for military service, without re-
gard to any proof of the existence of disability contracted in
that service, have proved, throughout our history, extremely
costly and liable to a multitude of abuses. Almost invari-
ably, the framers of such legislation have seriously underesti-
mated the expenditure involved in its execution. The laws
have required but short periods of service, have been loosely
drawn, and have failed to place ordinary safegards upon the
Treasury. Where the service pensions have been granted
long after the close of the wars concerned and to persons
who have reached old age, there has not been so great a
cause for objections as to measures which have granted al-
lowances to those who were independent and actively en-
gaged in the affairs of life. But service pension laws, as the
term is used in the United States, seem, in any case, to be
unwise. They have only been made possible through a
revenue system which, during long periods of years, has

349] CONCLUSION: A CRITICISM I3I

kept a large surplus in the hands of the Government. Euro-
pean nations have provided pensions for soldiers who have ,
completed many years of faithful service in the regular army,
but no other nation has had service laws at all comparable to
those enacted on behalf of the volunteer armies of the
United States.

While service pension laws are subject to grave objec-
tions, a properly guarded invalid pension system is in ac-
cordance with good public policy. Most civilized nations
have recognized this fact and have provided, in some way,
for wounded or disabled soldiers. In enlisting volunteers for
our wars, it has been usual to make a promise of invalid
pension provisions for the benefit of the troops enlisted. So
long as war continues to be the means of settling disputes
between nations, the duty of providing for those who are
disabled in military service will be enforced upon govern-
ments by public opinion. If, as in the case of the United
States, the government is able to provide liberally for inva-
lids, it seems but right that it should do so. There will be
few, if any, who will oppose the claim for relief made by the
soldier who has received actual disability in the line of duty.

Properly restricted pensions to widows, orphans and de-
pendent relatives seem also to merit general approval.
There will be great difference of opinion as to what is a
proper restriction in the case of widows' pensions. A con-
servative rule would allow a pension to a widow only when ,
marriage took place prior to or during the soldier's term of /
service, and when the soldier's death was directly due to in- /
juries received or disease contracted in the performance of/
his military duties. Some greater degree of liberality with
regard to the date of marriage might, however, prove expel
dient.

All propositions for pension reform made under present
circumstances must hold in view what is practically attain-

j 3 2 MILITAR Y PENSION- LE GISLA TION ["350

able rather than theoretical perfection. Radical changes in
the existing system would be attended with much difficulty
and might work considerable hardships. Though this essay
has been devoted primarily to a consideration of legislation,
enough has been said to show that administrative reforms
are also urgently needed. We have never had a system of
adjudication of pension claims which has sufficiently safe-
guarded the interests of the Government. In this direction,
there is a fruitful field of investigation. It is earnestly to be
desired that public interest may be aroused to the import-
ance of the whole pension question, and that a knowledge of
the experience of the past may lead to a betterment of leg-
islation and administration in the future.

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133

In the preparation of this monograph, the principal sources of information have
been the records and public documents of the various departments of the govern-
ment of the United States. The following have been used : Annals of Congress,
Congressional Debates, Congressional Globe, Congressional Record, Senate Jour-
nal, House Journal, Senate Reports of Committees, House Reports of Committees,
House Executive Documents, Message and Documents, State Papers, Reports of
the Commissioner of Pensions, Reports of Cases argued and adjudged in the Su-
preme Court of the United States, United States Statutes at Large, and Statistical
Abstract of the United States.

The writer has also examined a large number of newspaper and magazine arti-
cles, compilations of laws, and other works which have proved of but little value
for his purpose. In addition to the public documents mentioned above, the fol-
lowing authorities have been found useful and are cited in the footnotes :

Acts and Laws of His Majesty's Colony of Rhode-Island and Providence-Planta-
tions in New- England, in America. Newport, 1745.

The Acts and Resolves, public and private, of the Province of Massachusetts Bay
( 1 692-1 780) . 5 vols. Boston, 1 869-86.

American State Papers, Documents, Legislative and Executive. Folio, 38 vols.
Washington, 1832-61.

Archives of Maryland, edited by William Hand Browne. Proceedings of the
General Assembly (1637-92). Baltimore, 1883-94.

Benton, Thomas Hart, Abridgment of the Debates of Congress. 15 vols. New
York.

Boutell, Lewis Henry, The Life of Roger Sherman. Chicago, 1896.

'Bureau of Pensions, its Officers and their Duties. The Manner in -which the
Work of Adjudicating Claims is Performed. Washington, 1893.

Carson, H. L., The Supreme Court of the United States.

The Colonial Laws of New York from the Year 1664 to the Revolution. 5 vols.
Albany, 1894.

The Forum. New York, 1893.

Hening, William Waller, The Statutes at Large, being a Collection of all the
Laws of Virginia from the First Session of the Legislature in the Ytar 1619. 13
vols. New York, Philadelphia and Richmond, 1819-23.

The Independent. New York, 1898.

Journals of the American Congress from 1774 to 1788. 4 vols. Washington,
1823.

134

353 I BIBLIOGRAPHY

Journal oj the 7^wcnty- second Annual Session of the National Encampment,
Grand Army of the Republic. Minneapolis, 1888.

Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 4 vols. Philadelphia, 1810.

Laws of the United States Governing the Granting of Army and Navy Pensions,
together with the Regulations Relating thereto. Bureau of Pensions. Washington,
September, 1896; September, 1897; May, 1899.

McMaster, John Bach, History of the People of the United States from the Revo-
lution to the Civil War. 4 vols. New York, 1883-95.

Mason, Edward Campbell, The Veto Power, Its Origin, Development and
Function in the Government of the United States (1789-1889). Boston, 1891.

Niles* Weekly Register. Baltimore, 1811-49.

The Papers of James Madison, edited by Henry D. Gilpin. 3 vols. Mobile,
1842.

Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England. 1 1 volumes in 9.
Boston, 1855-61.

Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New Eng-
land (1636-1792), edited by John Russell Bartlett. 10 vols. Providence,
1856-65.

Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New Eng-
land. 5 vols. in six. Boston, 1853-54.

Thayer, James Bradley, Cases on Constitutional Law, with Notes. 2 vols.
Cambridge, 1894-95.

A Treatise on the Practice of the Pension Bureau. Compiled by order of the
Commissioner of Pensions. Washington, 1898.

WTells, "William Vincent, The Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams. 3
vols. Boston, 1865.

The Writings of George Washington. Collected and edited by Worthington
Chauncey Ford. 14 vols. New York and London, 1889-93.

",• -' , '^

VITA

WILLIAM HENRY GLASSON was born at Troy, N. Y., July
26, 1874. He graduated from the Troy High School in June,
1892, and, as the result of a competitive examination, won a
New York State scholarship in Cornell University, which in-
stitution he entered in the fall of 1892. On the basis of his
record for the first two years of his course, he was awarded
a University Scholarship during the junior and senior years.
In the junior year, he was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa
Society. He graduated from Cornell University in 1896
with the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy, receiving special
mention in history and political science.

Before graduation, he was appointed Fellow in Political
Economy and Finance in Cornell University for the ensuing
year. He attended courses and seminaries under Professors
J. W. Jenks, W. F. Willcox, C. H. Hull and M. C. Tyler.
For the year 1897-98, he was chosen Fellow in Economics in
the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied under the
direction of Professors H. R. Seager, L. S. Rowe, J. B. Mc-
Master, J. F. Johnson and E. P. Cheyney. He was Univer-
sity Fellow in Administration in Columbia University during
1898-99, and attended lectures and seminaries under Profes-
sors F. J. Goodnow, J. W. Burgess and E. R. A. Seligman.
In the following year, he was Instructor in History and
Political Science at the George School, George School, Pa.
This dissertation is his first published research work.
355] 137

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